A Second Chance at Life
by Miranda Flairgold
Summary: When Voldemort’s assassins find him Harry flees seeking a place to prepare for the battle. Bloodmagic, wandlessmagic, necromancy, fae, a thunderbird, demons, vampires. Harry finds the strength & allies to win a war. Singularly unique fic.
1. Chapter 1

**A Second Chance at Life**

Miranda Flairgold

I own nothing you recognize, and all the ideas that you don't.

I own the bloodmagic ideas; thread magic, and all original characters and magic and plants and potions.

Baku come from Japanese legends, the Chachapoya _are_ real - The Chachapoyaro are_ not_ real.

Starts after HBP (Half-Blood Prince)

No pairing yet, haven't decided if there will even be any long-term pairings at all. There will be several very short term pairings with original characters (I mean short, as in one-nighters)

Rating will be PG-13 to R (I think rating depends on your personal opinion).

If it goes higher than R I'll move it to another website.

Note this is a very long fic, is part of a series, and will be getting a lot longer. Don't forget anything you read - it'll come back eventually, and don't judge too fast, my plans for this series may take years to finish.

If you want to use any of my ideas in your fics you may, just please note where the idea comes from.

-

The gunman moved silently through the house, his padded boots making no noise on the floors. The boy had to be here somewhere; the woman had said he was. A door was nudged open with one shoulder and the man leaped inside, there was no one. A small door, slightly ajar, and flight of steps downwards into a basement, the lights were on. Down there then. Hiding? Did he know he was here? An ambush? The hired killer decided it was unlikely, he was only sixteen; he couldn't know anything of ambushes. The man slowly began to walk down the stairs, gun ahead of him, the boy was probably doing the laundry, muggles did that in the basement right?

But down below Harry Potter _was_ waiting, and he most certainly _was_ planning an ambush. He'd heard the cruciatus curse the man had used on his Aunt, despite the silencing spell, and he had heard the click of a gun and the soft tread of feet. His Uncle's pistol was in an old dresser down in the basement, and if he used magic the Ministry would know. The gun then, he knew how to use it, had watched Uncle Vernon teaching Dudley. He hid behind the steps, waiting.

The assassin looked around the basement and stepped off the last step, at the same moment as a bullet hit him right in the middle of his chest.

There was a man lying on the floor, in a pool of blood, and the younger man pulled a knife from a hidden arm sheath and placed the tip next to the fatally wounded man's eye. The dying man looked up into burning emerald eyes.

"Who are you working for? What are you doing? Tell me if you want a quick death. However, if you would rather I cut your eyes out, then just keep your mouth shut."

-

The owl dropped down into the fog towards an old farmhouse. The sun was just burning through the clouds and the birds' feathers glowed white in the early morning rays. One window was wide open, waiting for her; the people inside had been up for hours.

"There! There she is!" Hermione shouted leaping off her chair and snatching the letter from the snowy owls' talons. The bird hooted indignantly and settled on an empty perch.

"Well? What's it say?" Ronald Weasely asked, leaning over Hermione's shoulder to read.

"Relax Ron, let her open it first, read it aloud will you?" Ginny said, the five of them, herself, the twins, Ron, and Hermione had been waiting for this letter. After the wedding of Bill and Fluer Harry had returned, briefly to his relatives while the others remained at the Burrow.

"Okay, okay, here." Hermione said unfolding the parchment.

Hey all,

Please try to read this through without throwing a fit; I have a lot to tell you. There has been a change of plans. When I was at my relatives a man walked up and stunned my Aunt. He then pulled out a gun and attempted to shoot me. I had my Uncle's pistol, I was "borrowing" it in the hopes that bullets could go through magical shields. I guess I just fired faster than he did. I'm okay; he died in the basement (that's where I was when he found me). When I saw he was dying I took out that knife (thanks for that, Fred, George) and threatened to cut his eyes out if he didn't tell me what he was doing, who he was working for.

Okay bad news first: Voldemort has put out a contract, for any assassin that will kill me. Apparently the reward is something amazing because the man mentioned that there were several others, he just got to me first.

Good news: he's the only one who found out how to get to me, yet.

Bad news: There's other rewards for anyone who I've been talking to or associating with, no names, just anyone I contact.

Ron, Hermione, I told you that I would not be going back to Hogwarts, and I'm not. When I found out about the assassins I went into hiding (don't ask where). I have found a place to go to for a while, I still need to finish my schooling you see, I just don't have enough experience yet to tackle the Death Eaters. This will be the last letter I send to you for a few months. Do not try to contact me, it's a safe bet that all of your entire family's outgoing and incoming mail is being intercepted and read. If you write a letter to me they will kill you too, and Hogwarts, as you well know, is not very safe. Better to let them think you have no idea where I am, which is why I'm not telling you. If you don't know they can't get it out of you through torture or truth potions. I will contact you once I find a safe enough way to do so. Ginny, please look after Hedwig for me. Everyone knows she's my owl and she's not exactly inconspicuous.

When you go back to school, if Draco Malfoy is there keep an eye on him. But I don't think he's too much of a problem. You see when Dumbledore was cornered by the Death Eaters Draco had been assigned to kill him, and he didn't. Malfoy backed down, he wouldn't do it. He was ordered to, but he refused to cast the spell. He made no move to protect Dumbledore from Snape, not with a mad werewolf and several Death Eaters around him, but he wouldn't do it himself. Makes you wonder doesn't it. I'll tell you something else; he's only working for the Death Eaters because Voldemort threatened to kill his mother and father. If someone told you to bring Death Eaters into Hogwarts, or watch your family die, what would you do?

I'm really sorry I have to do this guys, I know we were planning to do this together, but I don't have much of a choice. By the time you get this letter there's a good chance I'll already be out of England entirely.

Don't worry too much about me; I have a few backup plans you see. In the envelope you will find fifteen small phials, these are filled with that wonderful luck potion. There's one for all of the Weasely's, including Fluer, as well as Neville, Remus, Hermione, and Luna. Give the other phials to whomever you think might need them. I brewed these around Christmas, didn't tell anyone because I wasn't sure if it would work, the potions a little different from the regular luck potion. I made up my own version that takes less time. Yes Hermione I actually did, that damn book had nothing to do with it, you know, I actually am fairly good at Potions, the book just made everything even easier. Keep them with you at all times, if you're ever in trouble drink it.

Good luck to all of you, we _will_ see each other again.

Best wishes,

Harry Potter

"Oh Harry, you didn't have to!" Hermione wailed, gripping the letter so hard it ripped

"But, but, h-he can't just _do_ that!" Ron said incredulously. The others didn't speak for a moment.

"Ron, he already did." George said finally. Then pulled out two of the phials and tossed one to his twin.

"Have some faith Ron," Fred said, slipping his phial into a pocket.

"He'll do fine," George added.

"He's a tough guy Harry." Fred finished, the twins apparated away.

-

Harry watched Hedwig fly away. Ginny would look after her.

Contrary to what he had said in the letter he was still in England, still at his Aunt and Uncles house in fact. But if the letter was intercepted, as he believed it would be, they would start looking outside of England, and perhaps that would buy his friends some safety. He had buried the assassin the backyard, so deep no one would ever find him, the ground had opened up for him, but the Ministry had said nothing about accidental magic. They probably had better things to take care of.

He had been honest when he'd said that he didn't think he was ready yet to take on the Death Eaters. The battle with Snape had shown him that, and Snape was one man he was going to kill no matter what.

What he needed was time, time to practice, time to learn. And the resources to learn from. And Harry Potter had an idea. Originally he had thought of a time turner, to go back in time and study until he got back to the present. But the time turners were out of reach, the ones he knew of were destroyed. But there was a place with the resources he would need. And, if he needed it badly enough, time as well.

The Room of Requirement.

The day he got his license, one hour after he passed the test, Harry apparated to the Shrieking Shack, from there he took the tunnel to the Whomping Willow. He had stopped after his test in Diagon Alley, where he had purchased what seemed like an excellent companion, to replace Hedwig and to help him with one area of his magic the Room of Requirement might not know about, Parseltounge. The creature was a snake, three feet long, magical, a black cobra with silver markings. It said its name was Sygra.

Getting into the school was surprisingly easy; an invisibility cloak was all that he needed. He hurried through the empty corridors to the Room of Requirement, and paused. A sleep charm put the one portrait out for several hours. There was no sound of anyone so he quickly summoned a brick right out of the wall, he then removed one of his two watches and placed it behind the brick, before replacing it. Then he went into the Room.

Harry wished for a chair and it appeared, he sat down and looked at the second watch. The two had been set to the exact same time. Now all he could do was wish, and wait.

_Please, please, I need time, I need time, I need time to stop in here. _Harry thought thinking hard about what he wanted to happen, he wanted time to pass normally inside the room, but he wanted the room to be removed the world's time so that when he left it would be the same day, the same hour, the same minute, it was when he entered the room.

Finally Harry stopped wishing, and started to work, wishing for a book on wordless spells he settled down to read.

Two hours later the watch started to beep. Harry put down the book, picked up the watch, and left the room, he open the brick and took out the other watch, it should show the exact time it had when he'd entered the room. And it was still working fine. Relief washed over Harry, the Room of Requirement could stop time for him, he could learn all he needed to know and emerge to the same minute he had entered.

The room also provided everything he needed. He had tried to immediately jump into defensive and offensive magics, only to realize that his background in magic in general wasn't good enough. After several hours of working through a book of rare spells, only to find that he couldn't perform any of them, Harry closed the book and sat back in his chair. What had started as a short trip of a few weeks or a month was rapidly looking like an impossibility. He needed time, and, much as he hated to admit it, he needed to start with the basics of magic itself before he could reach this level. He still couldn't perform spells wordlessly, and he needed to know how, it was time to start over.

Harry thought strongly of books explaining how magic worked and the various ways to perform it, in seconds a small pile merged, Harry open the first book and groaned, this was going to take forever. Reminding himself of the magics Dumbledore, Voldemort, and Snape all seemed to be capable of, he began reading.

Only to find that the book was so dull that after a few hours he could remember nothing he'd read. Taking notes didn't help. Harry had the room provide a potions text and flipped through to a section on memory potions.

The Memory Potion will improve your memory for several hours after taking it. However this potion is itself dangerous, take a larger dose then required, or take too many doses in any twenty-four hour period and you risk permanent brain damage.

Harry looked over the potion, it was extremely difficult, but it didn't take too long to brew. And the room would provide the ingredients. He'd have to be very careful with the dosage though. That was okay, in between he could practice spells, and, with the knife the twins had given him, fighting. That was another thing he knew nothing about. He needed an edge, if that meant muggle fighting then it did.

Harry swallowed another dose of the memory potion, grimacing at the hideous taste. He followed it with a potion to speed up reading skills, and another that would speed up how fast his mind comprehended the stuff he read. Three months he had lived in the Room of Requirement, three months without hearing another human voice, he talked to himself while he brewed potions, it helped break the silence. Sygra, his magical black cobra with her delicate silver markings, was there to talk to, they had become good friends. She helped him to think of things he wouldn't have ever thought of, the other potions were part of her addition to his training.

The two other potions had been added in when it occurred to her that the memory potion alone could only help so much. The comprehension potion was especially useful. The books on how to work magic were all different; it seemed to Harry that magic was taught wrong. Different people's magic worked differently, the writers seemed to think so. He had spent a few weeks finding what worked best for him. He had learned that verbal incantations were mostly used to help focus the mind on a particular effect, wand movements had the same purpose. Harry had eliminated wand movements, they were distracting and for him unnecessary. Indeed it seemed likely that wand movements, while very useful for some, confused and distracted other people from the spell they were trying to do. He was one of the latter. In three months he hadn't worked on any real battle magic. He had planned to, but then he had remembered that it was Hermione's vast knowledge of little spells that were so helpful, and Dumbledore's drying spell, he'd always concentrated on big effects, ignoring the hundreds of other spells. He was learning those now. Along with how to brew his own potions. Today he was working on healing magic.

He had memorized the basics of bone and muscle structure in humans and most mammals, now he was asking the room for injured animals, and practicing treating them. The small dog on the table in front of him had a broken leg. There was a spell that allowed the user to see through the skin to the bones Harry had cast it and could see that it was a clean brake, this one was simple. Broken bones took him no more than few minutes these days; at first the spell had taken a half hour.

His usual routine for a day involved eating breakfast (which the room provided along with everything else), drinking the potions, and working on theoretical magics. He often needed an extra-strong concentration potion to help with this, but the study had paid off and he thought his grasp of magical theory was much much better now. One of the things he had always had trouble with was transfiguration, but in one of the books he had come across an idea that had proved to be one of the most useful things he had learned in all his time at Hogwarts.

The levitation spell worked by lifting an object into the air. According to the book the spell was easier if you thought about all that went inn to that movement. Gravity pulled down, the magic countered it, air moved around the object to fill the space it left. Careful thought about what the magic was physically, or in potions and transfiguration, chemically and biologically, doing, made the spell easier.

Ever since learning that tip Harry had thought about every spell he knew, and what the magic was actually doing to whatever he had cast the spell on. He only needed to go through it once or twice, then his mind seemed to understand the spell and it became simple. Was this how Hermione did it all so easily? If _when_ he saw her again he'd have to ask.

Thinking about his friends made him realize that he had no plans of what to do, he needed more than this room, he needed real experience and training from teachers. Hogwarts, he had decided, was out. Durmstrang and Beauxbatons weren't options either. What other schools were there?

Well, the room was sure to know, Harry thought about how much he needed to know about wizarding schools. Specifically a place with a hard curriculum, outside of Europe, someplace where he could learn without being such a big sensation, begin famous interfered. A place that taught dark arts as well as defense, a place where he could learn what he needed to know to fight, and to live after the battles were over. The last was something he hadn't thought about until recently, but had started to consider it.

There was a pile of books on the table in front of him. Harry opened the first and began to read while taking notes. Hours later he had completed his research.

The Akren Mountain School of Magic seemed a good choice. It was hidden away in the middle of Canada. The creator, a recluse of a warlock who had not liked the way he was taught, nor the way other schools taught their students, had started his own with his two siblings around 400 A.D. They had taken a massive piece of Canada, which, at that time, had no humans and, literally, copied it. The weather there mirrored the weather of the actual place, but anyone could walk right through the land, and not appear in the school. Indeed a road ran right across the property, but that road did not actually exist on the school grounds. An exact copy of everything had been made, and sealed off from everything. The place was impossible to plot and impossible to find. It was intended for all humanoids – which included vampires and werewolves. Students, however, had to find the school themselves, which was why it had a small population, mostly people whose parents went there. It taught just about everything, but had no problem stating plainly that it didn't believe in dark magic, it taught everything as though it were all legal. If the students got into fights it was their job to finish them, teachers didn't intervene, if you got injured you had to heal it yourself or have a friend do it. There was a doctor but that was only a last resort. Rigorous beyond almost all other schools it taught both magical and non-magical things. Preparing students for life in the magical or muggle world. Schooling however didn't start until age fifteen, before that the students went elsewhere. Talent hunters for the school were supposed to go to all other schools and meet the students and test them. But on the list of schools the recruiters visited Hogwarts was absent, along with Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. According to the books this was because most parents didn't want their children to even hear of such a harsh school, especially since it taught dark arts. Akren Mountain School claimed to have produced researchers who had created about half of the existing spells and potions, invented mind magics and real necromancy along with more than half of the worlds top sorcerer assassins. Alumni also included many of the richest magical people alive and all of the most powerful magical vampires. (not all vampires could perform magic).

The courses seemed what Harry was looking for, and some of the things students could learn were: getting an animagus form, thread magic, runic magic, blood magic, magical animals, nonmagical life forms, the muggle sciences like biology, physics, and chemistry, potions, alchemy (the most advanced type of potion making), spell creation, dueling, politics, nonmagical fighting, soul magic, horseback riding, star navigation, wand making, metal working, stone/gem magic, aura reading, divination, muggle society, languages (the school offered 37 different ones), and many other things.

What interested Harry the most was that the teachers didn't take attendance, they depended upon the students to want to learn. Classes were divided by what level of a type of magic you were at, and age didn't matter, you could have fifteen years olds and eighteen year olds in the same class. Schooling was available up until age twenty-one, when you turned twenty-one you had to leave. Students ate when they wanted, slept when they wanted with no curfew, they each had their own room and you had to take a test to get into most classes. For transfiguration you took a test to see what level you would be placed at. However things that were not taught anywhere but the Akren Mountain School, like soul magic, had no test.

And students were allowed to keep anything as a pet, Sygra, his serpent could come with him.

It seem intimidating, but it also seemed ideal. Harry was seventeen; if he needed to he could stay at the school for years, he could leave whenever he wanted and return to his classes whenever, with few questions asked. He could go destroy Voldemort and all the pieces of his messed up soul whenever he found them.

But if he was going to go anywhere Harry knew he would need a suitable disguise, one that he could carry for years if need be.

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	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Disguising himself, Harry learned was going to be harder than he'd ever thought. For one thing dying his hair wouldn't work because those spells and potions were never permanent.

So the hair had to stay, but there were ways to change it, just not the color. Straightening spells however hadn't worked well; he'd wound up with slightly wavy instead. A hair growth potion, rubbed into his scalp while showering and second one drunk with breakfast gave him shoulder-length hair by noon.

The Room of requirement didn't have many books on disguise, but a little research provided a lot of useful spells and potions – they'd just never been put into the same book. The search also turned up an ancient potion to correct nearsightedness.

The dark blue potion bubbled in the cauldron, it appeared exactly right, bubbly, as thin as water on top, murky and thick at the bottom of the cauldron, and it stank horribly.

"_It says I need three drop per eye, three times a day, for three days."_ Harry hissed, more to himself than to Sygra, but she answered anyway.

"_Whoever made up that potion was very fond of the number three, couldn't you increase the dosage each time and take it for two days instead?"_ She hissed. Harry looked through the potions book to find out if that were possible, personally he didn't like giving his eyes any dosage of flesh eating beetle stomach acid, even if it was in a potion.

"_No, it's the beetles, too much makes you go blind."_

"_Ah, that would be bad."_

"_Indeed."_ Harry stirred the cauldron four times clockwise, the books said two times was enough but his first batch hadn't been too great, his second attempt he'd used three stirs and it had been better, so why not try four?

Why not was because the potion began to bubble over, violent waves of blue foam. Harry tossed in flobberworm brain juices and it calmed. But the potion was ruined, three stirs it was then. Harry made a mental note of that and tossed the ruined batch, taking his earlier attempt instead.

The book said that the potion had to be put in one drop at a time, each drop followed by a spell to the eye. Harry removed his glasses, picked up one of the smaller stirring rods and dipped it into the potion, one drop hung precariously to the end when he removed it. The Harry carefully held one eye open and tilted his head back.

Burning pain flashed through his eye, making Harry drop the stirring rod with a gasp. His fingers dug into the chair so hard his knuckles turned white. His fingers began to hurt from the pressure but Harry could only feel the excruciating pain in his eye, the book hadn't mentioned this!

"_The spell, master, the spell!" _Sygra hissed, wrapping a coil around his wand and lifting it to his hand. Harry raised it quickly and pointed it at his eye while forcing the eye open with his other hand.

"Sano!" He had practiced the spell and it worked fine now despite his lack of concentration, a tiny red bolt of lightning leaped into his open eye. Harry screamed in pain.

"_Master?"_ The pain was receding, slowly, finally it faded. Harry found tears running down his face he raised a hand _"don't rub it!"_ Sygra reminded him, Harry paused and took a few deep breaths.

"_Thank you Sygra_". He hissed finally, resting his head against the back of the chair. _"I have to do that twenty-seven more times to that eye…and twenty-eight times to the other."_ It wasn't a pleasant prospect, but he couldn't stop now. Harry picked up the stirrer and dipped it into the potion again. Five more to go for this round, three to each eye with every meal. It was only for three days, and he would never need glasses again.

XXXX

With his hair longer and no longer nearly so messy, but neat and wavy, and his eyes cured Harry looked at his face in the mirror, he looked different without the glasses. But was it enough? No, there was still that scar. He had used the room to spend a few days in the sun and the tan had also altered him a little, but the scar still showed clearly on his forehead, proclaiming who he was to everyone.

There was a potion Harry was using to do something about the scar. He had discarded the idea of spells because if he entered a non-magical area, or a duel, or somehow the spell broke or he wasn't able to put the spells on again then it would show. But there was a potion, designed to create a substance that looked like human skin, thinner than the thinnest paper. Each piece would last for ten to twelve days before he'd have to remove it and put a new one on. And you couldn't feel it if you touched it, disguise detection spells wouldn't notice it.

Once it finished simmering he would skim off the thin layer of fake skin on top of the potion, layer after layer could be removed until the cauldron was empty.

Harry had never thought to disguise the scar before, but just because something isn't removable doesn't mean it can't be hidden. It was almost scary, to think that soon he would look in the mirror and he wouldn't be Harry Potter anymore. Well he would be, but he'd be different. The thought that next time he walked into a room full of strangers no one would be able to guess who he was was thrilling. Something other people seemed to take for granted, anonymity, just another sixteen year old. Not different. No one would stare. Harry glanced at the simmering cauldron, feeling giddy and over excited. The potion took four months; he had started on it two months previous. One batch would yield enough of the fake skin for a year, depending on how banged up his head got of course. And the Akren Mountain School of Magic didn't interfere in their students health unless the student really, really, needed help. Indeed, several of their students had died over the years. If he got knocked out no one would be prodding his head looking for something, except his friends, maybe.

That was another thing he was looking forward to, making friends without having the whole Boy-Who-Lived thing already there between them from the beginning. The freedom in being able to get away from everyone who knew and to do anything was even more exciting then the prospect of learning mind, blood and soul magic.

Harry had done a charm earlier that day to find out what height he could expect to reach eventually, only to find that he, at five foot eight, had already hit it. Harry had always wanted to be tall; it came from being so much shorter than his abusive uncle. And if he was going for something that would be even more useful in throwing people off of who he really was, height would do it. Neither of his parents was more than five foot ten. For this he had turned to a growth potion. It was very dangerous to take because if the dose was a few drops too much it would snap his joints and possibly damage his spine. Harry had been very careful to take a slightly smaller dose than he needed. Because it was such a strain on the body he had had to wait until his eye-treatments were finished, and he would be taking one dose of the growth potion every day for a week.

He could already feel a dull ache spreading throughout his body. Attempting to ignore it Harry sat down and open a book on occlumency that he had been working on for several days. He was determined to master the art.

XXXX

The dummy, brought to life courtesy of the Room of Requirement, hurled a knife, Harry caught it and threw it back, smiled at the satisfying THWACK of the metal sliding into the wooden dummy neck. Knife throwing was not easy, catching even harder; he had the scars on his palms to prove it.

Putting aside the knife Harry began some hand-to-hand sparring. When he wanted to he could have the dummy show him how to do blocks, kicks, or punches. And while it wasn't as good as having a human teacher, when combined with a book on martial arts it was good enough. Harry's preferred attack style was to hit his opponent, damage them as badly as possible, and get away quickly. He liked speed, never quite being where the dummy expected. Though another disadvantage was that the dummy didn't operate like a human mind, the Room knew exactly where Harry was all the time. Harry realized that having a dummy that always knew when he was, how good or bad his footing was (based upon where the room felt the pressure on the floor), and that moved quite unlike anything human could put him in a bad spot when he did finally wind up with a human opponent. But it was the best he could do right then. So instead he concentrated on learning all the tricks he could. Punches were all well and good, but if you could remove the other person's eye that was even better, so Harry practiced going for the face, and the throat. A good blow to the neck with the edge of his hand or a sharp jab with the tips of the fingers was worth several punches to the gut. Choking and gagging because of hit to the neck was enough to upset and unbalance anyone.

He had been living and studying in the Room of Requirement for nearly six months. The growth potion had worked out marvelously and Harry was very satisfied with his new height of a few inches over six feet. Harry had taken to his new appearance like a fish to water, his only worry now was that someone would recognize his eyes, for this Harry employed an easy to make fairly common potion that would turn his eyes more blue than green, getting rid of the distinctive Killing Curse color they usually were. The potion would have to be renewed every week or so. Harry had timed it to match with the renewal of the fake skin.

Harry's silent spell casting was going very well, it had taken a long time to learn all the interesting spells he had found, but with the help of the memory potions it had gone fast. He could now do most of the spells he knew silently, though his precision needed work. His knife fighting was coming along well as was the martial arts he had started. He would never be anything truly remarkable with either for a long time, but had the basics down. With his additional growth had come additional muscle mass, which only helped.

Harry had debated for a long time over whether or not he should attempt some of the enchantments that would give him faster reflexes, better night vision, greater stamina, speed. The potion and spell combinations were a form of blood magic, and as such considered by most to be a dark art. Though there was nothing really dark about it besides the blood, since it was the blood of the user rather than a victim. Harry had been more worried about making a mistake, make a mistake with blood magic and the results are horrific.

XXXX

Hogwarts to Reopen Late

It was announced by the new Hogwarts headmistress Minerva McGonagal that Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry will reopen on September the third this year, instead of the first as it has in previous years. With the loss of its long-time Headmaster Albus Dumbledore the school……

Harry put the Prophet article aside and glanced around warily. Diagon Alley was filled with people buying school supplies, but no one had recognized him yet. Walking with a smooth unhurried stride he crossed the street to Knockturn Alley. It had rained recently and the Alley was wet, smelly, and filthy/ Harry was glad he'd worn the high black boots, he didn't want to know what some of the stuff on the ground was. His height and dark green hooded cloak made the Alley's usual residents move aside for him.

Harry tried several shops, none of them advertising what they were really selling, before he found a weapons place. Inside weapons of all sorts lined the walls and shelves. It was very well lit, for a Knockturn business, and very large. The owner had clearly been collecting for some time. On a shelf in the back Harry found what he was looking for, knives of the sort needed for blood magic.

Picking through the blades Harry found one that matched his needs. He also selected a few others that might be needed for other rituals. The elderly man at the counter gave him a solid glare, apparently not bothered in the least by intimidating strangers. Harry figured that was because if he collected such weapons, he probably also knew how to use them.

When he returned to Diagon Alley Harry turned and headed for Gringotts. As he waited for a man with a wheelbarrow full of what looked like blue oversized maggot to pass Harry saw, on the other side of the street, three sets of red hair. Harry paused, watching as Ron, Ginny, and their mother, loaded down with school supplies, wandered into the apothecary. They looked anxious and sad, and Ron and Ginny kept looking everywhere, as though searching for someone. Harry continued down the street and did not look back.

Withdrawing a fairly large amount of money from his vault Harry walked back to the apparition place, checking to make sure he had all of his purchases. This included a large box containing potions ingredients. He could use the ingredients the Room provided, but then the effects would vanish as soon as he left the Room. He had used all of his left over ingredients from NEWT potions on what he had made so far. And Harry, who was really getting interested in all the possibilities in potion making, felt that he would need a lot more.

XXXX

The Room of Requirement came through once again, providing the very best reflexive speed increasing blood magic ever developed.

Harry examined the pictures in the book, and then looked around, The Room of Requirement had been transformed into a stone room. Harry had spent days placing the correct symbols on the floor, drawn in his own blood. Now he put the book aside and, naked, knelt in the center and began to meditate, he'd drunk the potion earlier and bathed in the second potion. It made skin burn as if he was on fire, but there was no apparent physical damage.

The one time he had left Hogwarts had been to purchase the knife he now held from a shop in Knockturn Alley. It was rare so-called "red" silver, washed in dragon and Baku blood. The Baku were creatures from Japan, the face of a lion, the body of a horse, the feet of a tiger, and the tail of a cow. The knife had a reddish tint to its pale silver blade. Harry's body was marked in ink with runes, the ones he would soon have to cut into his skin.

Harry bent his head and began to cry onto the knife, tears were required, why he had no idea, but he wasn't about the deviate from the book. His breathing, aided by a calming charm, settled out and soon his mind was empty and drifting. Breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth Harry paused for several minutes, and then began to concentrate on the purpose of the runes and blood magic.

Then he began to cut. It hurt, but he had to ignore it. Blood slowly welled and began to drip down his arm from the first cuts. The knife could never leave his skin, and it began to grow colder and colder as Harry, breathing calmly. It required wandless levitation, that he had been practicing for weeks, to cut the runes on his back, but he did it. The blade hummed and went icy cold from the magic and the runes on his skin and on the floor began to glow, though Harry had his eyes closed and didn't see it.

It took seven hours, not because of the amount of runes but because if he made the slightest mistake the magic would self-destruct, killing him. When the knife finally returned to his hand Harry slowly opened his eyes.

His body was smearing with blood and he was sure if anyone saw him right now they'd assume he was dead. His skin tingled in an almost-painful way, the glow was still fading from the runes as Harry, shaking, tried to stand.

He collapsed to floor again almost immediately at the screaming pain in his stiff legs and knees. He settled down to wait; slowly flexing his legs and feeling the blood begin to flow again.

When he washed the blood off he found that the runes were drawn delicately into his skin in gold. The runes then faded over the next few days until he couldn't see them anymore, unless he concentrated on the feeling of power that he had felt rushing through him during the ritual, then they glowed brightly.

XXX

A few more months passed in the Room, less than a day had passed outside. The only time he had left was to go to Diagon Alley, and one trip into the forest for a few plants. The outside world had experienced less than twenty-four hours; he had lived for nine months. Harry wondered if it would affect his aging process, he didn't think it would, but it was only nine months. Since the first blood magic he had done had worked well Harry had gone through two more sets. The combined effects of those two had increased his stamina and strength, without adding on too much more muscle. Potions had given him far above average night vision and his regular learning was more than satisfactory.

Though his current Occlumency was about midway between novice and master Harry was almost satisfied with it. There weren't too many people who had mastered it and he didn't think he'd find too many fellow students who knew it. The key was a calm organized mind, that was also very aware of its surroundings and could notice someone trying to peer into his thoughts. What Harry really needed though, was someone to practice against, and the Room of Requirement could not provide that. Perhaps at Akren he would meet some people who could help.

One of the things Harry had done was to build himself a new magical trunk. He had opted for one like Alastor Moody's, with six different compartments all in the same trunk, depending upon which lock was unlocked. The locks were keyed to his fingerprint and magical signature. Harry wasn't entirely sure how that worked, but the spells hadn't been too difficult and he was fairly sure they had worked.

One if the compartments Harry had filled entirely with potions, several hundred of them. He had also resolved to carry a portkey (keyed to the Potter's house in Godric's Hollow), the invisibility cloak, his broom, and several potions with him at all times. The major problem was finding a way to carry them so that no one could find them even if they did a strip search. Harry had finally come up with the idea of an earring. A tiny chip of obsidian, so small that it couldn't get caught on anything and no one would ever think to remove it.

Harry leaned over the sink, carefully washing the blood off his ear. Thankfully there wasn't a lot of it. The tiny piece of obsidian glinted in his sore ear. He had placed it on the top of his ear rather than the lobe, and it was colored like skin, designed to look like a dark freckle or small wart. If touched by his blood, and then pressed just right, once to the piece in back, once to the obsidian chip, once to both, a section of the obsidian would break off, fall to the floor, and enlarge itself to the actual size. It was a small trunk, long enough for his broom, but very thin. Just large enough for the potions, knife, gun, portkey, bandages, and cloak to fit.

Harry had dropped by Diagon Alley once more and bought a Nimbus 2000, this was the broom he would take to Akren with him. The Firebolt was too flashy; it would stay in the earring trunk.

XXX

Harry figured he'd been living in the Room of requirement for nearly a year. He had studied hard, and was well up to NEWT test level in all of his subjects. He had also worked on Runes and thread magic, just so he would have a head start. He had mastered offensive and defensive fighting spells, including several kinds that really were borderline dark arts and could inflict severe damage.

He had studied vampires and werewolves, since he could assume that there would be both at Akren.

Because the school engaged in muggle sports and sciences he had studied those too. How the Room of Requirement came to have Algebra and Biology text books Harry didn't know, but he was glad it did.

Because the books about the school had warned that wilderness survival was part of the curriculum Harry had worked on that too. The art of tracking had particularly interested him.

He was ready to start school, the Akren school year started in the fall, though most students stayed all year round. Incoming students of all ages (so long as you were below twenty you were welcome) arrived on September fifth.

Now all he had to do was _find_ Akren Mountain School of Magic.

Review Please!

Most of this is based upon what _I_ would do if I went to Hogwarts. Use the room of requirement to become the best at everything.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Finding an unplottable place that is disconnected from all that exists in this world, that basically has its own little universe, is not easy. Harry knew that before he started looking. What he hadn't guessed was how difficult it would be. Because the school had bought and (literally) made a copy of the land well before anyone thought of going there it had never seen a muggle other than perhaps a few tribes of natives long long ago. The massive ring of mountains the school was located in weren't even on present day maps. They didn't even exist anymore. After copying what had been there (four hundred thousand square kilometers of land.) the founders of the school had altered the muggle landscape, making their school unique and ensuring that it could never be re-fused with what existed. They had at the same time made it so that anyone hearing stories of the school wouldn't believe them – mountains to rival the Himalayas? In Canada? Massive hot springs in said mountains? No one would believe the tales told by ex-students who might talk too much. The school itself was located at an altitude of roughly 8,000 feet above sea level. Kept warm by a set of hot springs and geysers vast enough to rival Yellowstone National Park in the United States. A lake kept so warm that you could swim in it all year round despite the harsh winters. Hidden away so that finding it had taken days.

Sure Harry had found the location, in the northern part of what was now known as Saskatchewan.

The problem was getting _in_. - There were no roads from the muggle to magical worlds, they were completely disconnected. The maps he searched for days were useless. No apparition, no portkeying.

Harry finally gave up on the getting there part, instead he took out a quill, parchment and ink, and wrote a letter.

-

-

Nvara Aelfly

Headmistress of the Akren Mountain School of Magic

It is my understanding that students are recruited for your school by talent hunters who visit all other wizarding schools, searching young people with the amount of dedication and talent that you seek.

However, because most of the magical population of Europe does not approve of your school, for one reason or another, your talent hunters have not visited Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in nearly three hundred years. Indeed, the teachers at Hogwarts have done everything possible to keep their students from learning that the Akren Mountain School of Magic even exists.

As a result I never had the chance to apply for testing to see if I qualified for the Akren Mountain School of Magic. I am asking for that chance now. I am about the start my seventh year at Hogwarts and am seventeen years old and though my OWL scores are not all that impressive I can assure that they are not indicative of what I can do. I am requesting the opportunity to be tested because I think that I can meet your standards and I feel that my education here at Hogwarts is sadly lacking.

Please consider my request,

Rahkesh Asmodaeus

-

Harry had given a lot of thought to his disguise, and he had never really liked his name much. He'd found the replacement by mixing and matching letter, and book of names. There was no way anyone would get Harry Potter, from someone with a name like Rahkesh Asmodaeus. The Headmistress would probably know that it was a false name, but Harry didn't mind that, so long as she did not object. After all many of the students probably used fake names, as many of them were not looking for legal jobs or lifestyles.

Harry then packed his things, he had made copies of all of the books he thought he would need, copying them word for word with a charmed quill, since spells didn't work. There were nearly a hundred of them, he placed them into his trunk, which was larger inside than it was outside. In another compartment he placed several dozen potions he had made. The next compartment carried his knives for blood magic, a small box with a few rubies, emeralds, diamonds, and sapphires, the four most common stones of stone magic. A long pieces of thread made form his hair, washed in his blood. These were apparently the basis of thread magic, which Harry also intended to earn.

He placed Sygra in a large cage in a compartment that also held Hedwig's old cage and owl treats. His clothing went into another compartment. Leaving him one left for his broom and whatever else he might get.

It would take a long time for an owl to get to Canada form England, so Harry had decided to travel there himself. He had always wanted to travel anyway and he had never gone to another country. It was the 31st of August in the outside world; Harry had found that most of his potions and the books he had copied had to be copied and brewed in real time. So he slipped into normal time, though still in the room, to finish what he thought he absolutely needed.

With everything packed away and ready for his trip Harry stepped out of the Room of Requirement and headed for a small inn at the end of Diagon Alley opposite the leaky Cauldron. He had a room reserved.

XXXX

The Rampaging Hippogriff was a smaller, cleaner establishment than the Leaky Cauldron. The main room was a massive restaurant. The floor covered in a thick green, red, tan, brown, and gray carpet. Small cushy booths lined the walls and circular tables with off-white table clothes and decorative candles covered the room. The chairs were elaborately carved solid wood things with satin seats and backs that matched the rug. It was an hour or so too early for dinner when Harry Potter, now named Rahkesh, arrived.

In the entrance way was a large desk and a massive wooden staircase that led to the upper two floors. The man sitting at the front desk gave him his key and showed him to his room. He was on the top floor, a room so much better than what the Leaky Cauldron offered that there was no comparison. A large bed, a desk and chairs, three large windows with silk curtains, his own bathroom made from marble.

Rahkesh set his things beside the bed and flopped down on it, pulling a travel brochure he had copied from the Room of Requirement out of his trunk he lay down to read it.

He knew next to nothing about how wizards traveled form country to country, but he couldn't see the Malfoy's getting on a plane, ever.

_**International Flying Carpet Service** _

_The very best in the travel business! If you're looking for comfort and speed look no further._

Rahkesh flipped through to the destination they offered. All carpets left from and arrived at the same place. Rahkesh quickly copied down the directions; down the farthest end of Diagon Alley was a place where another alley branched off, down at the end of that was where the Flying carpet Service was located.

Rahkesh saw that he only had to reserve tickets in advance if wanted first class, he'd settle for second class, though he didn't want third.

Checking the times and destinations he found a flight leaving for Ottawa the next morning. It wasn't anywhere close to his destination but there was nothing better. Rahkesh figured that he could find a flight to someplace nearer to the school through the Canadian Carpet Service, which was mentioned in a list and only traveled around Canada. The real trick was going to be getting them his letter, and then getting into the school. Given how different it was he figured no one would mind if he was a day or two late, but he'd rather be on time. And that meant the 5th.

XXXX

"One ticket to Ottawa." The woman at the desk said, handing him a slip of paper.

"Thank you," Rahkesh replied before dodging away from the counter as someone who looked remarkable like Professor Trelawny stepped forward. Rahkesh looked down at the number on it and then at the pale orange ceiling where signs pointed to the stations the various carpets left from. He needed number fourteen; Rahkesh picked up his trunk and started off, following the signs. Rahkesh had charmed his trunk to be a dark green bag with six locks on the front. He thought it looked more like what other people had. Eventually he came to a large group of chairs and a large sign reading Gate 14. There was a door that led outside and onto a platform; there was no sign of the carpet. Minutes later he saw it.

It wasn't as large as he had thought, about the size of the living room floor at the Dursley's. Four large lamps turned on as the carpet drifted into its spot. Bright orange and green with a black and white fringe. There was no one on it, and it hovered as if it could fly away whenever it felt like it. But this didn't seem to be bothering any of the other people standing around. His fellow passengers were all wearing robes and waiting patiently, most of them carried small bags and suitcases. There was one family, a man and a woman with two little twin girls, both about eight, who had three massive trunks. The little blond girls raced around as if they weren't capable of stopping, and insisting on pointing out everything to their tired looking parents. In one chair there was one extremely old wizard in hideous pink robes with black socks and a gold hat with a bunch of dried leaves stuck to it. He was reading a magazine upside down and chewing green bubble gum while twirling a quill in one hand, the quill was dripping blue ink into the sleeve of his robes. Rahkesh tried hard not to stare. Wizarding folk sometimes surprised him; muggles would have dropped the man off at the nearest loony bin.

"Gate 14 carpet, departing for Ottawa, Canada, will begin boarding now." A woman dressed in a blue and tan uniform announced form beside the door. Rahkesh followed the others to form a line.

"Will you be putting your bag in storage or keeping it with you?" A uniformed man asked as he approached.

"I'll keep it with me, thanks." Rahkesh replied, wondering exactly where they would have storage space. There were forty people there and the carpet didn't look big enough for all of them to stand on, much less sit down with luggage.

"very well sir, the flight is three hours long and we will arrive at ten o'clock a.m. local time."

Rahkesh was briefly surprised, though he didn't let it show, how did they do that? Oh, time zones, he hadn't thought of that.

He handed his ticket to the woman and stepped through the door and, hesitantly, onto the carpet, which, though it rippled and moved, felt sturdy and solid. Now that he was on the carpet he could see reclining armchairs, each with a footstool and small table beside it. They were arranged along the outer edges of the carpet with more in the middle, forming two aisles that went back much further than the carpet appeared to have space for. Clearly it was bigger when you stepped on than it appeared from the outside.

He chose a seat about halfway back and sat down, the strange old wizard took the seat closest to him, across the aisle, the family went to the back. Rahkesh now noticed that there were no walls, he could probably jump off if he wanted.

The woman welcomed them on board, said that there were drinks and snacks available at the back, then told them to sit back and relax. Rahkesh looked off the side of the carpet and wondered if there wasn't something wrong. Did carpets go as high as planes? Wasn't there and air pressure or wind issue?

Suddenly the carpet lurched horribly, Rahkesh grabbed the armrests, which he now noticed had finger marks on them. Then, with speed faster than his firebolt, the carpet took off.

The first thing he noticed was that he couldn't feel the wind, invisible walls then? Or walls made of magic? Or just charms on the carpet? He wanted to ask but the speed kept on increasing. The carpet rose quickly straight up, not like and airplane he realized, with one end rising higher than the other, but the whole carpet just lifting up. The little girls were laughing with delight. Seeing the city spread out below them Rahkesh began to relax, watching the buildings drop away far below.

He was leaving England. A thrill shot through him, he hadn't thought it would be this exciting to realize that he was going some place new, to a new school, with new people. Rahkesh leaned the chair back and pulled out a book on animagi, this was going to be so much fun.

XXXX

Rahkesh got a room for one night in a small hotel recommended by a woman who worked at the Ottawa Flying Carpet Station. He left his bag there and set off to explore.

The hotel was in a part of the city that resembled Diagon Alley, magical people were going everywhere, most of them wearing muggle clothing. The helpful woman who had told him of the hotel had also mentioned that in all of North and South America, witches and wizards didn't wear robes. "Juts old fashioned uptight Europeans", she'd said. Rahkesh liked that; he'd never really liked wearing robes. The magical community was larger than Diagon Alley, and outside the main shopping center there were about a hundred homes, encircling the shopping area. There was a branch of Gringotts here too, the building looked almost identical to the one in London. Rahkesh stopped in at a book store and found a few things on necromancy that he liked. He also dropped into the rare potion ingredients shop, and came back out again feeling vaguely nauseated from the sight of fetal giraffe brains. How those would ever be used was beyond him, probably a very rare potion. He got a few things including a small phial containing a few phoenix tears. It was horribly expensive but he knew juts how powerful they were. Late that afternoon Rahkesh exited the fudge shop and walked down the street looking for the fastest owl post available.

There was only one owl post stop; he walked inside to a cacophony of hoots and screeches. Owls were everywhere, the yard out back were dozens more.

"Can I help you?" Rahkesh turned and smiled at the owner.

"Yes, I need to send a letter to some friends in Saskatchewan. I'm afraid I've procrastinated a bit, I need to get it there as quickly as possible." He explained. The man nodded, his large round, owlish eyes blinking hard, and then he turned and led Rahkesh out back. There he opened up a very large cage, inside was the largest great horned owl Rahkesh had ever seen.

"My daughter named him Rudolph. He's the fastest we've got, but I don't let him out of the country." He said.

"Not a problem, I'm just sending this to Saskatchewan." Rahkesh replied, holding up the letter. The man nodded and held out his hand. "Nvara Aelfly." He said. The bird gave a loud hoot and held out its leg, the owner gave the bird the letter and it took off, Rahkesh followed the man back inside.

"Saskatchewan, three sickles please. The owl will get there in two days." Rahkesh handed over the money and left. Back at the hotel he went back to his book, he was going to become an animagus, thought he process was incredibly complicated and difficult. Two days to get there two days to get back, unless they came to meet him. He had checked the travel guides for foreigners and had found a hotel named The Garuda in Regina, which had the closest wizarding community to the school. He had mentioned that he would be staying there in his letter if they wished to contact him. There was a carpet flight there the next day.

_Sygra?_ The serpent poked her head out of his open trunk.

We are there then? No more carpets and smelly nasty old wizards with strange clothing? Good, I don't like flying. We'll not be doing that again.

_Well, actually we'll have another trip tomorrow, sorry. I wonder if a calming charm would help?_

_Only if it works on upset stomachs._

_Sygra. Did you…?_

_Ah… yes actually. _Rahkesh got up and cleaned the mess out of the trunk, thankful that it hadn't been in the same compartment with his potions ingredients. The snake settled around his neck and across his shoulders, looking tired.

Go to sleep, the flight doesn't leave until early tomorrow morning.

_If snakes were meant to fly, young speaker, we would have been born with wings._ Sygra went and curled up on his pillow. Rahkesh looked around, fortunately there were other pillows. The snake was clearly making and unspoken statement about what she thought of his travel ideas.

XXX

Nvara Aelfly had been the Headmistress of Akren Mountain School of Magic for thirty years. Never, in all that time, had they had an application from a Hogwarts student. In fact they hadn't had applications from any British of French students in centuries. There was the occasional one from Durmstrang, but even those were so few and far between that there hadn't been one in twenty years. Those were always the ones that knew family or family friends who had gone to Akren Mountain. This student had found the place on his own, he had spent years under the 'light' Hogwarts curriculum, and he wanted to get out. He was a little old, but he was not the only new seventeen year old they'd be getting this year. They always got a few in all the age groups. Since students weren't placed in classes according to age it didn't matter really. She was pretty sure the name was fake, but so was hers. She'd adopted it upon coming to Akren as an eighteen-year-old fresh out of another wizarding school, and had never changed it back. Most of the teachers were the same way.

His OWLs weren't impressive really, but no one at Akren - except for the new students who didn't know any better – cared at all about any other school's idea of testing. Especially since, with the list of grades, he'd mentioned that the tests were interrupted.

Nvara scratched her pet snow leopard on the head, the big cat purred and pawed at the letter.

"What do think Shadow? Let him in?" The cat yawned, "okay then, Rahkesh Asmodaeus, welcome to Akren." There were seventeen white orbs sitting on her desk in gold holders. Nvara touched one and spoke. "Steve, we have a new student who is in Regina, at The Garuda, juts the usual introduction." A few second later the bracelet she wore, which had an orb on it that appeared to be a smaller version of the ones on her desk, glowed. She held it up to her ear and soft reply came through.

"Alright, I'll go tomorrow." Nvara nodded and waved the owl away.

"We've got it, you can go, no return letter." The big bird flew out the open window.

XXX

Rahkesh had checked into the small hotel called the Garuda earlier in the day. Around lunch made his way downstairs to the restaurant that sat beneath the hotel. The setup was similar to the place he'd stayed at in Ottawa, so similar that he wondered if the same people had designed them. The Garuda wasn't as clean and had wood floors but other than that the two places were identical.

It was dinnertime on the evening of the 2nd and Rahkesh had come down early with a book of the basics of thread magic to eat and read. Since Akren Mountain School would be accepting new students soon. He sat down at a small square table and ordered dinner. It had juts arrived when he noticed a pretty blond girl coming down the stairs. She glanced shyly around, spotted him, and drifted over to his table. Rahkesh was glad Sygra had stayed behind in his room, no point in scaring people with that ability. Besides, snake talking marked him as Harry Potter as much as his eyes and hair had.

"Akren?" She asked quietly. Rahkesh nodded and gestured to one of the empty places for her to sit.

"Yes, you too huh? I'm Rahkesh." She sat down, seemingly relieved to find someone else to talk to.

"Alexia, but please call me Ally. Where are you from?"

"Europe, England actually. I'm seventeen, you?"

"America, and I'm sixteen, from Washington state." Rahkesh nodded, though the last meant nothing to him.

"Did the talent hunters come to your school?" He asked, she looked surprised.

"Of course, how else would I have gotten here? They didn't go to yours?" Rahkesh shrugged and then nodded.

"They haven't been allowed into any of the top three European schools in centuries. People Europe, you see, they have these ideas of good and bad magic that are very extreme. Soul magic, necromancy, blood magic, mind magic, they find those things to be universally evil. I found out about Akren from a book in the library. The restricted section of it, they don't want their children finding out about this place. They're afraid we might want to come here. Muggle fighting is regarded as beneath respectable wizards, few of them can duel. Muggle sports are looked upon with disdain. And a school that makes you heal yourself horrifies the parents. The schools there, you see, look after everyone like they were their parents. The think this is a school of evil just because it hold to its own standards and is so selective." Rahkesh explained. Ally was staring at him, looking quite shocked and juts a little superior.

"Well, we Americans aren't so thick headed." She stated, Rahkesh laughed.

His dinner had arrived and hers was on the way when he noticed two more people that looked close their age range enter. Immediately he knew that these two weren't human, well, they _were_ but there was something very different about them.

The taller man was very handsome with short dark hair and black eyes which had a strange gleam to them, they glittered. He was searching the room as though looking for someone. The shorter one had long brown hair streaked with blond, tied back form his face, and bright blue eyes. He was holding a very large cat, the jet black animal looked very young.

Rahkesh watched them until they noticed him. The taller one spoke softly and both made their way over to the table. Ally looked up as the approached, her eyes narrowed briefly then she leaned towards Rahkesh.

"Vampires, you can tell by the eyes." She stated, not appearing frightened at all. Rahkesh saw that she was right, there was something strange about the eyes…they were murky, and hard and glittering at the same time.

"Evening, you two going to Akren Mountain?" The short one asked.

"Yes, sit with us? I'm Ally, this is Rahkesh." Ally replied for both of them. The shorter vampire pulled a tiny basket form his pocket and then pulled out and dark red wand, enlarged the basket, and placed it on the floor. The cat hopped right in and curled up.

"Thanks, I'm Silas, this is my cousin Daray." He introduced both of them, the dark haired one nodded silently.

"Where are you from?" Ally asked.

"Brazil, well actually we've traveled a lot, eleven years in Australia, four in China, and then two in Brazil. We're seventeen." Silas answered. His cat had leaped up onto his lap and was sniffing at Ally and Rahkesh.

"That's not a house cat." Rahkesh observed, "panther?" Silas grinned.

"Yeah, he's my familiar I guess, we understand each other fairly well you see." He explained, stroking the cub. Daray snorted.

"Fairly well? You tell him to turn on a light switch and the creature does it. Wait a few years; I'll bet you wind up with a telepathic connection. Waiter's coming." Daray added, Silas pushed the cat into its basket and patted it on the head.

"Stay there please Nuri." The cub growled and id as it was told.

"How come none of your parents are here?" Rahkesh asked. The others all blinked collectively at him in surprise.

"Ahhh, because they weren't _allowed to come perhaps_?" Daray finally said. Rahkesh shook his head and repeated his explanation about applying to the school on his own.

"I don't even know if they've accepted me, but I think they did." He finished, felt the presence of someone behind him.

"Oh we did." Rahkesh turned around. There was a very tall man behind him. With dark silver hair and pale green eyes. He wore dark green pants tucked into black boots and a black shirt under a jacket that appeared to be made from deer hide dyed black. Rahkesh noted the knives in his boots and the gun at his hip. He smiled down at the group; one of his front teeth was made of silver. "The Headmistress decided to let you in. We haven't had a student form England in over a century. Welcome to Akren Mountain School of magic Mr. Asmodaeus. I'm sure these three can inform you of what is required of the students…you have to find the school yourselves you see." He turned to leave then paused and looked back

"I'm Steve Marluck, tactics and battlefield scenarios class, muggle weapons trainer, and Occlumency teacher." He left with a swirl of the black cape draped over his shoulders. Rahkesh looked back at the others.

"How exactly are we supposed to go about finding our way to the school?" he asked curiously.

XXXXXXXX

The next day was the 3rd, they had to be at the school by noon on the fifth. The four teenagers and taken over a booth in the dining room and were making a list of things they would need. The others had explained to Rahkesh that they had to hike in, there was a trail that led into the mountains. The school had provided a device similar to a portkey that would take them to the trail head. Apparently there were challenges they had to get through on the way in. It sounded a but like the TriWizard Tournament to Rahkesh, but he didn't mention that.

He had gotten a pair of good hiking boots in anticipation of things like Mr. Marluck's classes. From stones they had transfigured small backpacks, because everything fit into their suitcases the suitcases, or trunks, could not themselves be shrunk. Harry was very grateful he had only brought one and it could be transfigured so that it was made of cloth rather than wood, it fit better that way. Not knowing how long of a hike it was, and knowing that if they flew on brooms they would be attacked by dragons on the lookout for flying students, they had to walk.

There were other students there, sitting in small groups, about thirty all told. As they out their things into the bags two more students approached them. A boy and girl who must have arrived very late the night before.

"Hi. Hey we were thinking that this would go better if we all joined forces." The girl said. She had two very long braids of brown hair going down her back, and brown gold eyes. Much shorter than Ally, who was very tall, she was wearing a high quality mud stained backpack and a green bandana. Rahkesh looked over at Ally, who nodded, and then to Daray and Silas.

"In the letters we got it said there was a limit on group size, but not what the limit was." Silas said, "but we might as well try."

"Might as well, there's strength in numbers. I'm Rahkesh, these are Ally, Silas, and Daray." Rahkesh said, introducing each.

"I'm Tanya, he's Thom." The blond haired boy smiled and nodded to them in greeting.

"Actually, joining forces is a great idea. Are you about ready to set out?" Silas asked, putting his own backpack on. Rahkesh and Daray both rolled their eyes. They had been standing there waiting for the other two for at least a half hour. Silas saw the look.

"Sorry, has to get Nuri settled." He explained, the panther cub was seated in a bag inside the pack, his head poking out through a hole, looking around curiously. Rahkesh, who hadn't shown them his pet yet, had Sygra in the largest outside pocket of his bag. It was good thing she wasn't larger than two and half feet yet. He had charmed the pouch to be hard, incapable of squishing her, and larger inside than outside. She hadn't complained yet.

"Yeah, we're ready." Thom answered, Ally shouldered her pack and transfigured a pebble into a walking stick.

"Lets go then."


	4. Chapter 4

Please pardon my Latin, using online translators for this. Not my fault Rowling hasn't made up enough spells.

Chapter 4

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"Baku come from Japan. They have the face of a lion, the body of a horse, the feet of a tiger, and the tail of a cow. It is called the 'eater of dreams', it can devour a person's evil dreams either making them harmless or changing them into good luck." Rahkesh said, studying the creature before them. It seemed to fit, but there were so many magical creatures.

"Certainly fits the description, but its feet are white." Silas said.

"Well there are white tigers." Ally pointed out, "be careful there, it might attack – it is a carnivore." Daray had been slowly moving towards it.

"With Hippogriffs you just have to be very respectful. You have to bow before approaching. I've never heard of how to handle these, but it couldn't hurt to try the same methods." Rahkesh said.

"We'll try that then." Daray said, clearly impatient. They had been standing there trying to decide what to do for nearly fifteen minutes so far. The vampire straightened from where he was crouched behind a bush and walked slowly towards the massive animal blocking the trail. Rahkesh and Silas moved into positions to either side, wands out. Tanya, who had been given the task of mapping their route, backed off a ways to note where they had encountered what.

The portkey (though Rahkesh was sure it was a different type of portkey than anything he knew) had brought all six to the trailhead. Because there were so many students Ally thought it likely that they all had different trails to follow. They hadn't seen any other humans. Almost immediately they had encountered a pit, dug across the full width of the trail and impossible to get around. The bottom appeared to be filled with what Thom was sure was some sort of acid. Daray had transfigured a rock into a long wooden plank for them to walk over.

They had also encountered a very large tree that bore a remarkable resemblance to the Whomping Willow. Rahkesh's immobulus charm had stopped it for long enough for them to pass.

Then there had been a pair of trolls. A few fire spells and cutting curses drove them away though.

And now a Baku, supposedly native to Japan. But this one did not appear to care that it was on the wrong continent. It was watching Daray steadily with black eyes. It was also growling, just a little bit. Daray stopped when he was just out of lunge range, and watched the creature. Avoiding looking in its eyes, which would be considered a challenge.

"What now?" Ally asked, they seemed to be at a bit of standstill.

"I don't know. Bowing works with some creatures. Try that, then approach it." Rahkesh suggested. "Silas, maybe we should lower our wands and stand over to the one side. With us on both sides it looks like we're planning an attack." Silas nodded and moved around behind Daray, Rahkesh stayed where he was, but both lowered their wands. Slowly Daray bowed low, then stood straight again.

"I think I'll just try to walk past it now." He said.

"Do so on the outside, that way if it attacks it can't pin you against the cliff. You'll just fall off the hillside and its not that steep." Silas suggested. Daray did as they suggested and slowly moved around the creature to the outside. It snarled and moved away, its mane bristling. Daray slowed down but kept on moving. The Baku clawed the ground and turned its head to watch the vampire, but it didn't attack.

"Okay, I guess we'll all just do the same, one at a time." Rahkesh said, signaling to Thom to go next. Thom repeated exactly what Daray had done and was permitted to pass.

When they were all on the other side of the Baku Rahkesh looked back and stiffened as he saw a cave that they couldn't see before, with several pairs of eyes in it. He rotated around on the spot, tensing for a fight. The two vampires, sensing his movement, followed suit.

"What?" Ally asked as she Silas walking ahead of her freeze and turn. "Oh."

The group paused, watching the cave, which Rahkesh was sure had several more Baku in it. The Baku just looked back out at them, waiting, fully prepared to attack.

"I bet they're there in case we tried to attack the first one. Backup. Do you think someone's giving us a message?" Rahkesh asked.

"What message?" Thom asked.

"That we shouldn't just try to overpower. Find another way. Don't; fight unless we have too." Daray suggested, "lets keep going, they're not coming after us." The six continued up the trail.

They were high in the mountains. Everywhere below them was a massive forest. Steep hillsides around deep ravines with small rivers running through them. It was summer and everything was green. They had seen several eagles and hawks, one of which had been flying _below_ them. Indicating just how high up they were. Occasionally there would be a flat area along a less steep mountainside or down at the bottom of a gorge. In these places large meadows, filled with colorful wildflowers spread out below them. In between the mountains they could occasionally make out small lakes and ponds, fed by melting snow that remained all year round, ringed by bright green grass.

Their next obstacle was a set of cliffs; they had to climb up one, over a short trail, and then down another one. After a little experimenting they learned that ropes disintegrated when the touched the rock, and the cliff burned their skin as well. They had to use magic. Keeping the warning about brooms in mind they didn't even try that. Instead they used levitation spells. Rahkesh could levitate himself al the way up, but the others needed a little help. Everyone joined in, whether the person needed it or not, to make sure they didn't fall. On the other side, at the bottom of the cliff, was a large clear area that sloped downwards slowly. Rahkesh, acting on a whim, conjured a massive mattress filled with air to land on, and jumped.

The wind whistled through his ears for forty feet before he hit it. He sank into the mattress and bounced up again, making his way to the edge and sliding off.

"Come on, it's fun." He shouted up. Ally jumped down next, followed by the vampires and then Thom and Tanya. With everyone down he removed the air mattress.

"This doesn't seem to be too hard." Tanya said.

"Don't say that, you'll jinx us. And it's only noon. We still have today and tomorrow. Of course they're starting out easy." Silas replied.

Tanya appeared to be right though, that day they encountered a wild dangerous river they had to cross, without magic. Several acromantula. And boggart. They set up camp for the night next to a small pond, transfiguring tents for themselves. The four males sharing on large tent while the girls got their own. Thom appeared a little uneasy about sleeping near vampires, so Rahkesh put him next to one of the tent doors. Silas and his panther cub were at the other door, since the young cat was likely to sense trouble before any of them did, with Rahkesh next to them and Daray between him and Thom.

Thom and Ally set up a small campfire and took out some of the food they had brought with them. The vampires announced that they were going hunting and went off into the woods, using summoning charms to bring the deer closer. They were back by the time the mortals had finished their meal. Rahkesh looked through his bag and found the marshmallows he'd brought.

"You are a saint." Tanya said, reaching for the bag and transfiguring a perfect stick to roast with. "Are you capable of eating human food?" She asked when the two vampires also took marshmallows.

"Of course, be pretty dull with just blood. Of course we always crave blood, but we like mortal food too." Daray answered for both of them while Silas took out a very fat dead rat and made a few cuts in it. His panther cub, smelling its dinner, leaped out of its carrying bag and grabbed the rat up in its mouth and dashed off behind a rock to eat.

"I'm hoping he'll be able to hunt for himself eventually, so I've started him on raw meat. Another two weeks or so and I'll start giving him partially live stuff." The vampire explained. "That taste good Nuri?" The cub yowled in reply.

XXXX

Rahkesh's eyes snapped open. He held himself perfectly still and relaxed as he searched for what had awoken him. Rahkesh checked his watch, trying to move as little as possible. It was early, really early, the sun wouldn't rise for a few hours yet and Tanya was on guard duty. But she had given no alert. Not that he'd expect it, Tanya didn't seem to be t much of a fighter. Nor was she particularly bright or alert. Actually Rahkesh didn't see how she'd gotten in. Both vampires were sleeping soundly, but Rahkesh was sure that something was wrong. He listened, but could hear nothing. He turned his head a little and found himself looking right into a pair of bright golden eyes. Nuri the panther cub was wide-awake, his ears twisting about as he listened. Remembering that there were other senses besides the obvious Rahkesh closed his eyes and sent out his mind, sensing far beyond the confines of the tent, searching. Technically a form of Ligilimency (sp?) this was a way to use magic to search for things your other senses couldn't detect. He also sent out his magic, feeling cautiously, if there were magical beings out there they might be able to sense his search.

There was something very wrong out there in the darkness. As the strange feeling that had awakened him grew stronger Rahkesh stopped looking and pulled his mind back into the tent. Concentrating on his magical senses again he began to put pressure on the two vampire's minds, willing them to wake.

Daray woke almost immediately, Rahkesh grabbed his are and pressed a finger to his lips, signaling him to be quiet. Silas woke seconds later and turned to look at Rahkesh. Rahkesh signaled to him too that they had to be quiet. Daray woke Thom, though it took a few minutes. Silas cast a spell on the tent so that light inside wouldn't show through the fabric, then his lit up his wand so that they could see.

"Put that out, it will ruin our night vision." Rahkesh breathed softly. Silas did so quickly. "There's something out there." Right on cue Nuri gave a soft growl. "Anyone really good with illusions?" None of them replied. "Do you know how to do an illusion?" Both vampires nodded, but Thom shook his head. "We can leave the tents and fire here, we'll head for the trees near the trail, if we can get there without being seen or heard we might get away. Whatever or whoever is out there will think we're still in the tents." Rahkesh explained.

"We'll cast an illusion on the tent and the ground just outside, no one will see us leaving." Daray said, he and Silas pointed their wands at on tent door.

"Mentiri exoculo" the incantation was the easy part. Illusions only worked if you had an exact picture of what you wanted to be there. The vampires were concentrating on the unopened tent doors, what color they were, how they looked. Adding details, enforcing their will on what other people saw when they looked at the front of the tent and the ground just before it. We're not here, really we're not. There's no one walking around. Only when the vampires nodded to signal they were ready did Rahkesh open the door and step out.

"Mentiri exoculo" he whispered, pointing his wand at the ground in between the two tents. He then focused on what the ground looked like right now, with no one there. Closing his eyes as Silas walked past him to wake Ally, who was in the tent. Daray ducked into the shadows of the rock Nuri had been eating behind and crept on his belly to Tanya. She started a little, but Daray must have told her to stay still because she went back to what she had been staring at a second later. Rahkesh built his illusion outwards from where he stood, in hid mind erasing anything that hadn't been there second before. There were clouds and it was very dark, not much moonlight getting through. Opening his eyes again he removed their shadows as the others moved around.

To everyone's surprise Daray pulled out an invisibility cloak. He transfigured a pebble into a statue and made it look like Tanya. Then Ally called up a small breeze to make the grass ripple; it was harder to pinpoint inconsistencies in illusions when things were naturally moving. As the strongest gust of wind blew Daray flung the cloak over Tanya and put the statue where she had been sitting. With both of them invisible they moved back to join the group. Rahkesh pulled out _his_ invisibility cloak, smirking at the looks of even greater surprise, and signaled Ally to join the other two while he took Silas and Thom. With Thom being so short there would be room for the panther hidden in Silas backpack. Silas cast a spell on all their feet to leave no footprints and the group set off. Rahkesh releasing his illusion as they left the camp.

They made it into the trees and up to the trail. Daray found a place where the several trees and a large rock circled a hidden depression in the ground. Here they all gathered, removing the cloaks.

"So? What's out there?" Thom asked.

"No idea, but it's bad." Silas said, reaching back to calm his growling panther cub.

"The trail up ahead takes a sharp turn around one of the mountains, once we get past the bend no one will be able to see us. Silas and I scouted it out last night while hunting." Daray informed them, "what if we use the two invisibility cloaks to get there? We can cast silencing spells so they won't hear us."

"And I know a spell to disguise our scent too." Rahkesh said, "back under the cloaks everyone." They all ducked back under the two cloaks, which barely fit all of them. "Inolentis", he repeated the spell seven times, once on each of them including the panther. "Lets go." The two groups took off, trying hard not to trip over each other. Up ahead the trail curled around a pile of boulders and headed up the other side of the mountain.

Once past the rocks Rahkesh pulled off the cloak and put it away. Daray did the same and the six teenagers spread out to sit on the rocks.

"Useful things aren't they?" Daray asked.

"Yeah, unless you meet someone who can see through them." Rahkesh replied, "listen guys whoever was watching us won't be fooled for long, it's going to be light in a few more hours. We should move as fast as we can." The others agreed and they set out at a faster pace.

XXXX

They made it all of a mile before they were attacked. The first blast or purple light threw Thom some twenty feet into a tree.

HWAM! A red spell hit a boulder near Rahkesh, sending a wave of magic all around as it turned the rock to ash. Another spell knocked a tree right over while a third whizzed around like a heat-seeking missile searching for something until it hit the ground. There were no shouts, no yells, just spells hitting from all sides. Rahkesh dove for the ground and rolled towards a fallen tree, seeing the others do the same. The barrage of spells pinned them to the ground, unable to get a fix on the location of their attackers.

"Tanya, get to Thom and see if he's okay." Silas called, the girl nodded and crept off, keeping low. Rahkesh's mind went into overdrive. The ground here was relatively flat, which meant that no one was above them. So long as they stayed near the ground spotting them would be difficult. Thom's backpack had been red, probably why he'd been hit. Daray had had the same thought and was already turning their backpacks the colors of the ground and leaf litter.

Their attackers were moving Rahkesh realized. The spell weren't coming from specific locations. And there were a lot of them. He estimated a dozen and probably not more than that.

"Lets play this in twos." Rahkesh whispered to the others. Silas over at Ally and they both began to move away, staying low. Rahkesh looked over at Daray who nodded. "Diversions." Rahkesh suggested. "Get them as confused as we are." Daray pointed his wand at a pebble and second later it had two legs, two arms and a head. It grew until there was human-sized body, made of rock, next to them. Rahkesh gave it some pants, a shirt, and a backpack. They created three more decoys before giving them life.

"Animus!" Daray said, concentrating hard. The fake human leaped upright and sprinted off in the opposite direction form them and the others. Spells followed it.

"Animus! Animus!" The other two were off, charging at their attackers position. Rahkesh and Daray slipped away to one side and headed forward. Making an arc towards where they thought some of the attackers were fallen trees and rocks littered the ground and deep depression and small bumps were everywhere, perfect cover.

With the people attacking them too busy demolishing the dummies the two kept moving until they spotted where the spells were coming from.

"There, three of them." Daray pointed. Hidden behind a small rise were three people. The dummies were gone. The spells they were using were not kind ones.

"We need to disorient them. Dump a lot of earth on them?" Rahkesh asked, eyeing another small mound of soil.

"Yeah, get on the other side of it and blast the dirt at them, I'll guide it."

Rahkesh dropped and rolled around behind the pile of dirt, using a few blasting spells he shoved more dirt up until he had a sizeable pile.

"Flipendo!"

"Locomotor!" As Rahkesh sent a massive wave of soil at him Daray caught it with his spell and hurled it onto their former attackers.

Unfortunately for the one of their attacker had had some decent training and he checked behind him for attacks like theirs, just as the wall of earth hit him. The man started hurling fireballs everywhere in the hopes of hitting them. Alerted by their companion one of the other people cast a shield.

"Immobulus! Incarcerous!" Rahkesh spell's damaged the shield, but it held.

"Inretio! Fractum!" The weakened shield snapped under Daray's bone break spell at the same time as Rahkesh silently cast his last two spells. A stunner, and a wrenching spell followed by a wave of his wand that summoned the three attacker's wands to him.

The stunner knocked the more alert mane unconscious and the wrenching spell was deflected away. But all three lost their wands. Daray attacked and stunned the last two.

"Summoning their wands, why didn't we just do that in the first pace?" Daray asked, conjuring ropes and tying the bodied up.

"No idea, shall we?" The vampire grinned; both stood and did simultaneous summoning spells. Rather than summon every wand in the mountains they focused the spell on the people in their area. The result was that they got the other four students wands, and eight more wands form their former attackers.

"They're running!" Ally shouted, pointing to the eight people sprinting away. Silas tackled one and punched him hard enough to knock him out. Daray and Rahkesh sprinted after them, throwing their companion their wand, and began sending out stunners.

It took a half hour to hunt down their last attacker. Rahkesh, Daray, Ally, and Silas cornered him in a ravine. The man didn't say a word; he just let them stun him. Silas levitated his body as they walked back.

"Bet they're students, sent to attack us." Ally said.

"Nah, actual students would do better." Silas disagreed.

"Who then?" Ally challenged, Silas just shrugged.

"Don't know - we'll have to ask."

"Or not." Daray, who had been walking ahead, called back. The other three rushed forward, to find Tanya and Thom unconscious and all their prisoners gone.

"What?" Silas asked, furiously looking around.

"Uh Silas? He's gone." Rahkesh pointed out. Their prisoner had vanished.

"How? How'd he do that!" Silas roared, "I didn't drop the spell!"

"Relax, clearly they had a backup plan in case they lost." Rahkesh said, "and I don't think they'll attack again."

"That doesn't matter. I was looking forward to their blood." The vampire pouted, Daray smirked at the disgruntled look Ally gave them.

"Not disgusted?" he asked Rahkesh; seeing that the other hadn't flinched and was busy waking Tanya and Thom.

"No." Rahkesh replied simply. "It's not your fault Tanya, stop apologizing. Are you okay to travel Thom?" The short boy nodded and stood up brushing the dirt off.

"Yeah, broken rib, Tanya healed it. And I'm changing my backpack color."

The group started off again, Tanya still keep track of where they went with her map. The trail led them through some of the most beautiful places Rahkesh had ever seen. They were at a fairly high elevation, but the sun was bright and it wasn't too windy. Up higher they could see massive mountains. The mountains around them were huge, they were at what Thom's altitude spell told them was almost seven thousand feet, and the mountains were several thousand more than that. They were slowly approaching the elevation the entrance to the school was supposed to be at. But so far they had seen nothing resembling its description. Of a massive valley with a lake, river, hot springs, huge meadows surrounded by thick forests.

They encountered a Fire Salamander not long after they stopped to eat breakfast. The creature was twelve feet long, and neatly blocked the trail between two big boulders. Behind the salamander they could see a stone bridge over a gorge, with another salamander right before the bridge.

"Water?" Tanya suggested.

"Or stronger fire." Silas responded.

"Or we could juts electrocute it." Rahkesh suggested.

"Or use water and _then_ electrocute it." Ally decided, drawing her wand and throwing a massive burst of water at the salamander. The creature flamed up, it skin burning, just before the water hit. The water turned to steam. "Uh that didn't work." Silas stepped forward next to give it a try.

"Inretio! Incarcerous!" The net was turned to ash by the fire. The ropes that went for the salamander's feet were neatly sidestepped, and then ripped apart by its claws. It was fast and it wasn't budging.

"Reducto!" Daray threw the curse at the salamander, which stepped aside to let the curse blow harmlessly past. "All of us then, in a row, Rahkesh, do your electricity thing." The vampire said. They all formed a line. "One, two, three-"

"Reducto!"

"Conjunctivis!"

"Stupefy!"

"Reducto!"

**"**Extorquo!"

**"**Fulguris." Rahkesh spoke, putting everything he had behind it. The salamanders fire absorbed the first, the second missed its head entirely, it shook off the third easily and absorbed the fourth. Its abilities ran out there though. The fifth spells caused it to nearly fall over, though there didn't appear to be any physical harm as it shook it off. But the magical damage was apparent as it swayed on its feet. Rahkesh's massive bolt of lightning sent it into spasms until it crashed to the ground, where Ally stunned it.

Stopping to make sure it was alive Rahkesh and Tanya cast several minor level healing spells. Tanya seemed to have some natural talent as a healer. They took out the next in much the same manner.

They placed freezing spells on the bridge, and were ready to cast levitating spells on each other as they crossed one by one. The bridge tried to break but the ice, enhanced with a sticking charm so no one would slip, didn't let it. It finally snapped juts as Tanya, the last, was crossing, but all of the others caught her and levitated her out.

XXXX

They had reached a place where the trees were only shoulder high, whether from a recent fire or elevation Rahkesh wasn't sure, when Silas spotted movement in the trees.

"Look!" Silas cried, pointing. They all looked, there was nothing.

"Where? What?" Ally asked. Silas looked carefully then pointed again.

"There! It's bright white. Wait, wait, there's five of them!" Sure enough Rahkesh could see five small white things moving quickly away from them through the trees.

"What kind of animal has a white pointed head?" Ally asked.

"None that I know of." Rahkesh replied.

"Ditto." Silas said, Daray just shrugged.

"Snow?" Thom suggested. He was too short to see well above the plants, which brushed at Rahkesh's neck. Thom's eyes were just at the top branches.

"Nope, not that. And it's not antlers." Silas informed him. They all paused as the white shapes froze for a few moments. Then slowly began moving along beside the trail a bit ahead of them. The group hurried up to see what they were, but soon they were moving off from the trail again. "Should we follow?"

"No reason to, and we don't know how much further we have to go." Ally pointed out, the others agreed. But it wasn't long before the creatures with the white tops moved back towards them, around a bend in the trail ahead, and vanished from sight.

The bend in the trail wrapped around a massive outcropping of rock that jutted out from the mountainside. As they passed by it there was a crunching, crackling noise. The group froze, then, before their amazed eyes the whole rock lurched, rose up, and came hurtling towards them.

"Reducto!" Ally, Silas, and Rahkesh all got the spell of simultaneously. Thom followed with an impediment jinx while Tanya and Daray both cast their strongest shield spells.

The rock quivered and slowed down in mid air as the impediment jinx hit, then the destroying curses hit. The rock glowed, and exploded everywhere with a thunderous bang.

Shards of stone flew about as if from a shrapnel grenade. Chunks bounced off the shields, which were beginning to fade. The other five cast shields to aid the first two and together they huddled below the shields until the last bits of rock were gone. Slowly the six uncurled form where they'd been protecting their head. The shields were almost gone. They straightened and Ally cast a spell to clear off the trail. As Daray helped her to remove some of the larger chunks something moved across the trail, hidden by the remaining small boulders. They all turned, wands ready.

Five white shapes dodged off ahead of them into the trees.

Rahkesh hurled the last rocks away and the six students followed. Through the short trees that lined their trail the group hurried The shapes they chased stayed just far enough ahead that they couldn't see them. Finally the five left the trail.

"I'd like to follow them, they probably caused that rock to fall on us like that - it couldn't have done that normally." Rahkesh said, the two vampires and Ally agreed, but Thom shook his head.

"Look my ribs are hurting, and you four travel faster than Tanya and I can handle easily. How about we continue, you guys go and look for them and catch up with us in a bit. Just don't take too long." Thom suggested. Tanya agreed. She and Thom sat down to rest briefly while the other four went off.

"I still can't figure out what they could possibly be. They've got to be magical, but there's a lot of magical beasts capable of shows of strength or power like that." Silas said, "over there!" Sure enough five white shapes darted away. "They don't move too fast, but don't get too close, they're obviously very strong."

"All I want is a good look at what they are." Rahkesh replied, "though if they can talk an explanation might be nice."

"They're splitting up." Daray warned, up a head the five white-topped creatures parted. Rahkesh broke into a run and ran in an arc like a sheepdog would, Daray caught on and took the other side, herding the five beings back together. Ally dashed up to meet him and Rahkesh guessed that she was the fastest.

"Ally I'm going to cast a quieting spell on you, can you run ahead and created some sort of barricade with rock ahead of them?" Ally nodded and as soon as the spell was finished she sprinted silently away. Making sure to move far enough away that the little creatures wouldn't notice her going ahead.

Several minutes later they came upon her barricade, a large circle of rocks tightly packed together. The white headed beings noticed it first though and split up, gathering speed and dodging away. Rahkesh ran after one of them, keeping pace, waiting for the right opportunity to attack. He didn't really want to hurt it, even if these were the creatures that had tried to kill them with that massive rock. A little bit ahead he noticed a break in the short trees, with a fallen tree right in front of him.

Rahkesh stepped up onto the tree and leaped. He hit whatever it was, wrapped his arms around it, hit the ground with one shoulder, and rolled over several times. Wrapping himself around it so as not to seriously harm the small thing. He twisted so that when they stopped he was over it, pinning the creature beneath him he shot a silent stunning spell and felt it go limp.

Rahkesh carefully backed off, wand ready. Searching for any sign of danger. He needn't have bothered. The creature was out.

It was white, very white, all over. It was also smaller than he had thought. The extra height was due to a large, pointed, white cap.

It looked a little like a gorilla, only much smaller and fluffier, and white. It was covered head to toe in soft white fur. All but one hand. The left had was bare and bore a large set a tattoos. It had sharply pointed ears, and its teeth, he could see, were not those of a carnivore. Not sure if he had harmed it Rahkesh removed the white cap to look at its head where he had hit it with the spell. It seemed fine. Rolling it over Rahkesh cast a silent enervate spell and waited. And waited. And waited.

There was flash of light, and it wasn't a small white being anymore, it was huge. Rahkesh leaped backwards as the massive being towered over him. He rolled into the trees, threw their lowest branches over himself, and waited.

It was now a BIG white fluffy creature. Pale blue eyes searched until they found him. It was easily ten feet tall, but it still didn't seem dangerous. It watched him, Rahkesh looked back curiously. It knew where he was. Rahkesh rolled out from under the tree, stood, and handed the cap back.

The big furry white right hand took the cap, looked at it, and then looked at Rahkesh. It searched his eyes for a moment, and then, to Rahkesh shock, handed it back.

Then it disappeared. It took him a moment to realize that it had just shifted back to its smaller form again. Looking around he saw it peering at him through the branches of a nearby tree. It grinned, waved, and _giggled _at him. Then dashed off, leaving Rahkesh staring.

_Master, that was a Yeck._ Sygra informed him.

_Now you're talking to me again?_ Rahkesh inquired. She hadn't spoken to him since their second carpet flight.

_This school of your must be truly bizarre. _

_What is a Yeck?_

_I don't really know, the shopkeeper talked about them once. They're fluffy and white with runes tattooed on the left hand. He said he'd give anything to find one so he could get its cap. The cap gives the human who takes it the power of invisibility._

_Oh really?_

_Yes. Nice going. Can I come out? I'm hungry._ Sygra asked. Rahkesh opened the pack and took her out. He used a summoning spell and seconds later a small rodent came flying towards him. Before he even knew what it was Sygra lunged after it.

While he waited for the snake to finish swallowing her prey Rahkesh examined the cap. He could feel the magic in it. Did he have to wear it to be invisible? He put it on, it was too small and he felt no different. He took it off and concentrated on being invisible.

The magic almost made him stagger as it washed over him. Seconds later it was gone, leaving his blood humming and his skin tingling.

_Master? Where are you?_

_Here, that cas thing really worked. _

_You're invisible. I can still hear your heartbeat._

_Hard to disguise that. Most humans won't think of that, we rely on our eyes too much. This is very useful. Thank you for telling me. _

_Can you un-invisible yourself? Your companions are coming. Two of them have the caps too. _

_Okay, please get back in the bag Sygra. I'd rather they not know you're here. Some people don't like snake-speakers you see._

_Idiots._ Sygra snorted, as much as a snake could snort. And slid back into her pouch. Rahkesh decided he wanted to be visible again. Then looked at his hand, he could see it.

"Hey Rahkesh!" They could see him too, it must have worked. Rahkesh examined the others and immediately decided that it was the two vampires who had the other two caps. The other three Yecks must have gotten away. He couldn't explain how he knew, the magic just felt the same as his did. The vampire acknowledged that they had the caps, and could sense that he did, with a quick raised eyebrow and smirk behind Ally's back. They hadn't told her about the Yeck's powers. Rahkesh nodded in agreement, he wouldn't either. An advantage like that ought to be kept secret.

"They got away." Ally said, looking disappointed.

"Yeah, I tackled mine, thought I had it too. Did you see what it did?" Rahkesh asked. They must have seen it transform.

"Oh yeah. Glad it didn't attack you. Damn but it was massive." Ally said.

"I though perhaps I should just let it go when it did that. It didn't seem to want a fight." Rahkesh said. "Lets catch up with Tanya and Thom. Those things won't be throwing boulders at us again."

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Question for readers!

Should I refer to Rahkesh as Harry? In his own thoughts and when I'm describing things? Is using Rahkesh all the time instead of Harry too confusing for you?

Rahkesh and who? Gender doesn't matter I just want opinions after reading this.

Opinions on making this slash please!

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Please Review! Criticism is very welcome. Flames will be eaten by Nuri and Sygra.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

They found Tanya and Thom not too far ahead, using spells to check a creek before wading across. They were removing some strange plants that they didn't recognize with a levitation spell.

As the first plant cleared the water they saw that it was no ordinary plant. It had been the same color as the rocks it lay between, making it nearly invisible. As it was removed form the water it turned a stunning neon green. Of the kind usually associated with the killing curse. Once completely clear of the water the little plant, no more than a foot across rotated, all on its own. Everyone tensed. Slowly one long brown root curled up, like a snake about to strike.

"Tanya put it down!" Rahkesh shouted. The root zapped out, faster than the eye could see. Tanya yelled and flung it away; it landed on the ground across the creek.

A tiny bite mark showed on Tanya's neck. A little circle of pinpricks that oozed blood, the skin around the mark was turning pasty white.

"Oh no, oh no, what was it?" Tanya was starting to panic. Rahkesh saw that neither vampire was moving, both watching the blood.

"Snap out of it you two." He whispered, when they blinked and gave him sheepish looks he went over to Tanya. "Easy there, easy, slow your breathing girl. I don't know what it was. Does your neck feel any different? Cold? Hot?"

"No, no, neither. It hurts a little." She replied. Rahkesh batted her hand away when she went to touch the bite mark.

"Leave it." The white area wasn't spreading anymore. It had expanded to about the size of a galleon. "Any ideas people? Any anti-poisons we give her might have an adverse effect if we don't know what it was. A chemical change her blood could cause an allergic reaction to any potion."

"Don't bandage it. Let it bleed out. Maybe anything in the bite will bleed out with it. An anti-coagulant might actually be a good idea." Silas said. Tanya shook her head.

"No. Just leave it. If I feel anything I'll tell you." Tanya said, she seemed to have relaxed a little.

"There are some water plants that have minor stunning agents to stop creatures from eating them. That thing had a lot of leaves, probably why it was camouflaged so well. This is probably a defense against being eaten. Those aren't always lethal, especially with freshwater magical water plants." Ally said. "My grandfather keeps about a hundred different species in his water gardens, the vast majority are safe enough, just minor defenses."

"Lets not wade across then, build a bridge or levitate." Daray said, poking with a stick at another of the plants as it curled up and began to turn he jumped back. "And don't fall in."

With a simple set of wooden planks they made the crossing without incident. Now the trail really got steep, they were headed up towards where the school would be. The mountains around them got larger and higher every time they rounded a bend. One time they saw a dragon sunning on a ledge before the entrance to a massive cave. Fortunately it was on the side of the mountain across a valley from them and either didn't notice their presence, didn't consider them a threat, or was too lazy to attack.

They passed waterfalls that tumbled down between the peaks to fall thousands of feet over cliffs into the valley's below, turning to mist long before they reached the bottom. A lot of the plants were magical ones, which made them hope that they were getting close. The letter the other five had gotten said that they should reach the school sometime early on the 5th. Assuming they made it at all.

Despite the adventures of the day it was that evening, as they were heading for a clearing beside a stream, that they encountered the most dangerous obstacle.

Dementors.

Hundreds of them.

The two vampires sensed them fist and froze. Rahkesh sensed them seconds later. Then Nuri began to growl.

"What?" Thom asked, looking ahead. They couldn't see them yet but they knew they were there, and they were headed right for the six travelers.

"Dementors, a whole bloody army of them." Rahkesh said, backing up and collecting every happy thought and memory he could. He also began forcing himself to think, with strong emotions, of something other than a stag, concentrating on a phoenix and a grim instead. A stag was known to be Harry Potter's patronus. A phoenix was safest. Both vampires and Ally moved back with him and drew their wands, staying silent as they readied themselves. Thom looked confused.

"Dementors? What are they?" He asked. Rahkesh had no time to question his ignorance, at that moment the dementors rounded the bend ahead of them and the freezing cold enveloped them all.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Four voices yelled.

A massive corporeal phoenix flew out of Rahkesh's wand, followed quickly by a silver panther, a griffin, and a large, slightly shimmering and see-through horse. The two vampires, Rahkesh noted, were very good at the patronus charm, Ally was capable but nothing to brag about. Behind him he heard Tanya and Thom trying the spell over and over without success. Gathering himself he shot off a second patronus, this time calling up an image of his cobra Sygra. The snake leaped out the wand and lunged forward. Followed second later by another phoenix, all three corporeal.

"Expecto Patronum!"

"Expecto Patronum!" The vampires were following his example and soon two more patroni joined the attack.

Slowly the dementors began to withdraw, the four moved forward to keep close to their patroni, sending everything they had into the attacking creatures. When the last three patroni joined in the dementors broke and fled. Seven patroni followed in pursuit. Ally's finally shimmered out of existence.

"Oh God, what _were_ those?" Thom asked, sitting down heavily. Rahkesh and the vampires just sat down, breathing hard. Ally began to explain what dementors were and what they actually did.

Finally Tanya conjured some tents and started a fire, seeing that neither Rahkesh nor the vampires were about to do anything. A few minutes later the vampires rose, Silas left Nuri with another dead rat, and the two left to hunt. Rahkesh lay on his back and tried to get the memories the dementors had brought up to leave. A green light, a woman screaming, Dumbledore falling from a roof, another green light. Voldmeort's laugh. People screaming. Green light…

"Rahkesh. Rahkesh! Rahkesh stop it!" Rahkesh opened his eyes, the vampires had returned. Silas had just slapped him. Rahkesh stared, and then realized that he was glowing. Oops.

"Thanks. I hate those things." No one asked for an explanation. Rahkesh forced himself to eat, then went to bed. Thom had the first watch, then Ally, he had the dawn guard duty.

XXX

Rahkesh was seated with his back to boulder. One of the lichen covered ones that seemed to litter the place. It was just about dawn, the sun turning the sky a pale pink in the east, rising between the mountains. There had been no disturbances that night and the dementors hadn't returned. Actually the patroni hadn't either, which made Rahkesh wonder if they weren't still in existence chasing the dementors everywhere.

It was quiet and peaceful. Relaxing. The only sounds were the occasional twitter of some small bird or the hoot of an owl returning to its nest after a night hunting. The snowcapped mountains glowed, the sun sparkling off the snow. While the valley's remained partially dark, shadowed by the mountains.

The sound of phoenix song made Rahkesh leap to his feet in surprise. Not far away a bird rose up, silhouetted against the bright sun. It flew higher, and began a long circle of the valley between the mountains. Occasionally it would let out a burst of song. Rahkesh didn't know much about phoenixes, they were very rare and not much had been written expect for the ones that chose to become a human's companion, like Fawkes had wit Dumbledore. This must be a wild one. Rahkesh watched, delighted, until the phoenix finally vanished between two mountains. The dawn peace was broken by the sound of the girl's tent door being yanked open. Ally leaped out and raced towards him, looking panicked.

"It's Tanya, there's something very wrong with her." Ally panted out, and then sprinted to the boys tent. Rahkesh summon Tanya, sleeping bag and all, out of the tent and laid her on the ground. He was in an instant what was wrong. The pasty-looking white skin around the bite mark had spread. Her whole body was ash white and the circular bite mark had turned black.

"She isn't waking up, I've tried and tried." Ally said, returning to his side. The other three males followed seconds later.

"Shock?" Thom asked, reaching for her wrist, "no, her pulse is really slow. She's breathing fine, and her skin is cool but not cold."

"Poison. But if she isn't dead yet then maybe it's not a lethal type." Silas said. Nuri appeared, pushing his way between their legs. He took one look at Tanya and began to hiss and spit. "Nuri! Stop that." The cat ignored his owner; he was backing away from Tanya, his short fur standing on end.

"Okay, that's bad." Thom said, stating the obvious.

"I've already looked through all my books on magical plants, that thing wasn't in there. She isn't dead yet and though she looks awful she seems to just be deeply asleep. The sooner we can get to the school the sooner we can try to find a way to cure her." Rahkesh said, thinking of the small phial of phoenix tears he carried. If she wasn't in danger of actually dying he wouldn't use them. There was probably another way if they could just identify what that plant had been.

"We should head out, enervate!" Daray's spell had no effect. "We'll just have to carry her, Mobilicorpus!" Tanya rose into the air, Thom levitated her bag. They packed up the campsite in less then a minute and hurried out up the trail.

Early morning found them moving at a fast, steady pace up the trail. It was steep, and Thom and Ally were starting to have a little trouble. Possibly, Rahkesh thought, because of altitude, or juts being tired. He was very grateful for the time had spent in the Room of requirement now. He had made a point to work out, remembering how much difficulty he'd had swimming after Dumbledore, and then carrying the half-dead old man. He was also very thankful for some of the bloodmagic he'd performed. The added speed and stamina were showing now as he kept pace with the two vampires. Physically much stronger and faster than humans and unaffected by altitude they would otherwise have been able to outdistance even the fastest mortals. They were obviously staying slow to let the mortals keep pace, but Rahkesh had no difficulty keeping up with them. As soon as they reached the school he would have to find a way to make his body use oxygen more efficiently.

"Silas, Rahkesh, Daray, please we have to slow down." Ally finally said. She was gasping and Thom wasn't talking at all. The three paused and Rahkesh, remembering his potions, pulled out some pepper-up potion. He had stamina and speed increasing potions as well, and even one to temporarily cause the body to use oxygen more efficiently that he had made as soon as he learned what altitude Akren Mountain was at. But he wasn't going to waste those. Not if there was another option. If necessary he would prefer to use those to go on ahead with the vampires and get Tanya to Akren.

"I'm not sure if this will help much, but it might." He said, handing them the small glass containers. Ally and Thom accepted them without asking what they were, which struck Rahkesh as being rather stupid, and simply drank them. The pepper-up potions seemed to have helped because when they set out the two managed to keep up better.

"How is Tanya?" Rahkesh asked. Daray drew her floating body alongside them.

"No change. That's better than a change for the worse I suppose."

"Yes, I hope there aren't any more obstacles for us. This is enough." Rahkesh said, he was keeping a careful eye on the trail, and he was listening for Nuri, the cub was able to sense things and often started growling right before they encountered dangerous

creatures. Eventually Thom fell behind again, Ally kept up better, but though she was easily the fastest mortal there, and could match a vampire over a short distance, she hadn't the stamina to keep up and fell behind to run alongside Thom. The vampires had quickened their pace and Rahkesh kept up with them, even urging them to move even faster. "Do you think there _are_ any more obstacles?"

"Probably not. After all if they want everyone to arrive before the evening meal, and they would prefer it if we were there early this afternoon, then they can't give us much more than they did." Silas said. "Some groups probably won't make it today anyway. I mean I know that everyone is supposed to be qualified, but you must have noticed that two of our traveling companions aren't quite up to standards. Either that or the four of us are above average, and I don't think that's so. If Thom and Tanya got in then what would have happened with just them, or four or five people like them? They'd still be quite a ways back there."

"What altitude was the entrance supposed to be at?" Rahkesh asked, abruptly realizing that if the entrance to the valley was hidden, as it probably was, then they might go right past it. Both vampires halted instantly.

"Damn it! I didn't think of that. Sublimitas!" A small glowing number shot out of Daray's wand. **_2436 meters._** "We're there. Entrance is at exactly 2438 meters."

They looked about. There was nothing resembling a door. They were running along the side of a ridge. On their right the rock rose up several hundred feet, perfectly vertical, no handholds. The actually spine of the ridge was a few hundred feet above them atop that cliff. The left side sloped down at a shallow angle for several hundred meters, and then dropped off very steeply. They could see the trail for miles ahead, curling on the ridge to where it met a huge mountain and then at a steep grade up the mountainside, around the back of the mountain, and, in the distance up the sides of another ridge, rising even higher. The trail kept on going up and up and up ahead of them. It had to be where they were.

"The valley below us is too small. And I don't sense any magical illusions. Through the ridge? On the other side do you think?" Silas asked. He began running one hand over the rock wall to their right where the trail was cut into the side of the ridge along the base of the cliff. There was nothing obvious there. The three began to examine the cliff, looking for something that might be an entrance. Revealing spells turned up nothing. They tried changing the lighting, but that didn't show any hidden doors.

Thom and Ally caught up and began to help. Hitting the rock with a sledgehammer, searching for an echo, didn't work. The door must be very thick. Or sound absorbent. After two hours they got together and concluded that they didn't have a clue.

"Hellooo!" The five turned quickly to see another group coming up the trail behind them. There were five in this group, and they were much worse for wear than the six, even with Tanya being unconscious. They were bruised, two were limping, and one boy had an arm in a sling. Four of them looked absolutely exhausted. The fifth, the one who had called out, was in better shape; she seemed fairly cheerful despite a bloody bandage on her arm.

"Hi. You look a little worse for wear. Need some help?" Thom offered, showing them a healing spell that caused bruises to go away in about a minute.

"Why'd you stop here?" the girl asked, "oh, and I'm Mara."

"Rahkesh. The entrance is supposed to be hidden at 2438 meters. That's here, and the trail only gets higher. We've been here for three hours. Nothing, we've tried everything short of blasting through the cliff, and it seems that probably won't work since it absorbs spells."

"You tried hitting the rock, listening for an echo?"

"The first thing we did." Silas growled, a little annoyed.

"Huh. Well that just sucks." With that statement the ten conscious and one almost comatose students sat down on conjured chairs and stared at the wall, brainstorming.

A half hour later four students, one who introduced herself as a werewolf, one vampire and two mortals joined them. They looked just fine, if tired. They spent a little time trying a few spells on the wall, and the female vampire smashed a small container of acid into a crack in the wall. It ate into the rock but didn't reveal anything. Finally they sat down with the others.

A few minutes later Nuri growled, the vampires stood seconds later and turned towards the trail below them. A group of six rounded a bend lower down and began the steep climb up to join them. This group didn't look so good. One of them was being levitated by the others, his leg was wrapped in bandages. Another was staggering along white as a ghost and with her whole right hand bandaged. Of the other four only one wasn't sporting any injuries. The boy walking front stopped dead when he saw the students sitting there in front of a rock wall.

"Afternoon. Why are you all waiting here?" He asked. Thom described their predicament. As he spoke Rahkesh noticed the one vampire in this group, the only one witout injuries,giving them all a scornful look.

"Oh please, there has got to be a way in. You just didn't think of it." He said finally.

"And you would be…?" Silas asked.

"Saul. Saul Folvern." He said it like they should all recognize the name. His companions were rolling their eyes. Rahkesh traded confused looks with Mara and Ally.

"Never heard of ya." Silas said, he shrugged and looked over to Daray who also shrugged.

"Daray Ateres." He introduced himself. Saul blinked rapidly. Rahkesh guessed that meant Daray and Silas were from some important family. Silas smirked at Saul's surprised look and conjured a few more chairs.

"You're welcome to give it a try. Knock yourself out." He offered. In such a way that Saul had to take it as a challenge. The others sat down, grinning a little, as Saul, having no choice, started going over the wall. Searching for some sign of a door. And not having any luck.

Another group of six arrived. Making twenty-seven total. One of the student in the last group guessed that they were the last. Having had a difficult time the first day they had been going slow because of injuries ever since.

"You know it really isn't all that fair. All of us had the same obstacle, on different trails. The only things we all encountered on the same trail were the dementors. Since we got them first we had to fight them off when they were at their strongest. The others all got off easier." Rahkesh commented to Ally as they sat watching the last group take their turn at the wall.

"Really easy actually." Mara said, grinning. "We hit the dementors at about four a.m. we got up early. There was still one of your pastronus's there chasing them around. They were running like sheep with with a wolf after them."

"What form was the patronus?" Rahkesh asked, wondering if it could be his.

"Some sort of bird, maybe a phonix or an eagle." Mara said. Rahkesh grinned, his patronus had lasted all night. One of the others was trying to animate the rock in front of the area the door should be at to make it mve. Imaginative, but it wasn't working.

Saul snorted at their attempts, despite that he'd been doing the exact same spells moments before.

"Obviously _that_ isn't going to work. You need to get better at ward braking mortal." He insulted one of them. However this group had three vampires who all rounded on him.

"And you've been here without success for _how _long?" One of them asked sarcastically. Saul snorted and introduced himself again like they should know who he was. None of them recognized the name. One of the mortals got in his way and Saul, guessing he'd have better luck with a mortal, turned to her.

"A mortal isn't powerful enough to break these wards, you might as well stop wasting what power you've got." She ignored him completely and soon joined Mara in discussing soul magic as if Saul hadn't said a word.

"He's been a right bastard the whole trip. On and on about how superior vampires are and how powerful his family is." The exhausted looking girl with the bandaged hand said softly as Saul, getting angry, sent a couple of reductos at the wall, only to see them absorbed. Rahkesh, getting an idea rose and beckoned the two vampires on his team over to the wall with him.

"You've got better hearing so I want you to listen against the rock. I'm going to put a spell through the wall; it should make a sound in the empty space behind it. At least then we'll know there is a door there." The vampire nodded and went to find the exact spot. They pressed their ears to the wall and waited. Saul stepped back to watch them. Rahkesh leveled his wand down at the wall. The equivalent of a magical firecracker went off, sparks flew as it hit the wall, magic spear of sparks, for that's what it basically was, traveled through.

"Got it! There's a space behind there!" Silas said, stepping away, "right here."

"You're hearing things, there probably isn't even a door. We're in the wrong spot." Saul said, turning away.

"All right you listen." Rahkesh said. Saul moved over to do that. The female vampire, who said her name was Rianae, did so too. Rahkesh performed the spell again.

"There's definitely an open space back there." She said, stepping back.

"I didn't hear anything." Saul protested.

"Then unclog your ears." Rianae retorted. "It's there. Alohomora!" Again the spell was absorbed. "Damn it!"

"Melt it?" Daray suggested. "Heat spells, maybe that lightning thing you did Rahkesh."

"Valde fervens!" Silas said, pointing his wand at the space where the door was. Several more spells followed. All of them were absorbed.

"No, no, no. We're doing this wrong. Stop!" Rahkesh said, realizing that they were just reinforcing the wards with their magic. Saul didn't stop, he kept casting spells. "Saul stop it, you're not helping any. That won't work!" The vampire rounded on him.

"What do you know mortal? Just because you aren't powerful enough to manage it doesn't mean it isn't working. Fool." Saul hissed furiously. Rahkesh didn't pause, his wand snapped down and a wordless bolt of lightning zapped out.

The resulting thunder rumble and flash of light shocked everyone. Saul was thrown thirty feet down the trail where he landed hard, body convulsing from the massive electric shocks ripping through him. Rahkesh stopped the spell and let Saul live out the last of the spells power. Slowly the vampire rolled over and got up, shaking and twitching from leftover minor shocks.

Daray laughed.

Ignoring the humiliated vampire Rahkesh turned back to the group.

"This is a type of ward that absorbs all destructive magic thrown at it. In trying to break it we're just giving it more power. We can't overwhelm it. We need to drain away the magic in it." He explained.

"How do we do that?" Thom asked. Rahkesh shrugged.

"I don't really know. Maybe a simple summoning spell, to summon the door right out of the wall would force the wards to use all the power they've got." Rahkesh suggested. Not knowing if it would work.

Eight of the others got up and stood in a line, wands aimed at the door.

"ACCIO!" The wall shook, the wards flared becoming visible briefly. Straining against the summoning spell they glowed, and the glow faded a bit. The spell ended.

"ACCIO!" They all tried again.

"ACCIO!" And again.

"ACCIO!" And again.

By the tenth try the wards had dimmed significantly but the eight casting the spells were worn out. But the students had numbers on their side and another eight got up. They tried the spell over and over, one by one tiring and being replaced by the few that were left.

Saul didn't bother to help.

Finally Rahkesh, Daray, Ally, Silas, Riannae, a werewolf and three other mortals managed to removed the wards entirely. Everyone could feel the magic snapping as it dissolved away. Slowly the shape of a door appeared.

After hitting it a few time and kicking it Silas backed off. Rahkesh set a knife into a crack in the wall and began to try to pry it outwards instead of inwards. Daray and Mara soon jumped in to help with crowbars. Finally the rock began to move and slowly swung out away from the wall. Once they had it open they all peered inside.

The tunnel was larger than they'd thought, easily twenty feet high and wide enough for six to walk side by side.

With the lumos spell lighting their wands the new students slowly began the walk through the tunnel. Thom was still levitating the unconcious Tanya. None of the others had known what to do for her. It had been especially strange since six others ahd been bitten byt he plants, but none had had Tanya's reaction. They had passed out briefly and were feelig a little ill. Nothing like Tanya, their skin hand't even changed color. The door shut itself behind them. Saul jumped and looked back, in the lgow of their wands rahkesh could see the fear in his eyes. Perhaps the high and mighty vampire was claustrophobic? Or afraid of the dark? Wouldn't that be a laugh!The ridge the trail had been against couldn't have been very thick. But the tunnel was very long. Probably due to the magic hiding it. The school valley could only be entered through the tunnel. Eventually they reached a dead end, where Daray put his shoulder against the door and shoved hard. It swung open and light streamed in. gathering outside on a rock ledge they got their first look at their new home.


	6. Chapter 6

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Thanks to Vista 21.4.1990 for correcting my spelling of Legilimency

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I've decided to use Rahkesh and never to use Harry. That might change much later. If you can't handle remembering that Rahkesh is actually Harry, too bad.

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Chapter 6

When the book about Akren had said that it was located in a massive valley Rahkesh had pictured a little circular area stuck between a ring of giant mountains. The book hadn't been exaggerating and he had been very wrong.

To their right a trail running along the mountainside slowly sloped downwards into a deep valley. In fact the trail was so long that Rahkesh had to wonder if they'd make it to the school before nightfall. Massive was an understatement. He could see the white-topped mountains at the far end of the valley, but they were hazy and blurred despite the clear air. Spread out before them, far below, the valley was much longer than it was wide. Look out at it Rahkesh figured it had to be easily thirty kilometers wide, and four or five times that many kilometers long. A river running the full length of the valley gleamed in the sun. It widened out into lakes at points and was surrounded by ponds. Geysers and hot springs sent steam skyward, keeping the water warm. It was fall and the trees were turning color. The whole valley was a colorful blaze of late-blooming wildflowers, orange and red trees, tall dark green pines and golden grasses. Looking down on the valley, and seeing a dragon flying around a mountain that bordered the valley to his left, Rahkesh felt as though he'd never seen anything so beautiful. It was plain that any human presence was minimal. Herds of grazing beasts roamed alongside the river, elk running through the shallow water at the ponds edges. There was an eagle nest along the cliff just above the doorway. Pegasus and unicorns were moving around. Creatures that were crouched in the grass appeared to be hunting them. Rahkesh would guess that those were dire wolves. Looking straight down into a small lake that lapped against the base of the cliff he could see stirring tentacles, a creature not unlike Hogwarts giant squid. The river connected all of the lakes and he'd bet that there were some merepeople here.

The rattle of wheels over the wide trail brought them all out of their thoughts. A line of elegant black, silver, white, and gold coaches drawn by teams of Hell's Steeds – Fire Horses – drew up in front of them. Students dodged out of their way as the horses charged at them, and then halted so fast that the coaches' wheels left the ground. The massive animals that breathed fire and shot fireballs from their nostrils reared and roared, their manes and tails flaming. The battered group of new students climbed in, four to a coach. Rahkesh joined Silas, Ally and Daray for the ride down to the school. The coach lurched forward and the Fire Horses broke into a run.

The school itself was located halfway down the valley, at the point where the road reached the valley floor. It was a massive building built right into the mountainside. The whole front of the mountain had been carved out into balconies and gardens, the rooms behind them hidden in the mountain itself. Most of the balconies were not connected at all, not on the outside, and neither were most of the gardens. Except for what appeared to be the largest set of gardens right above the greenhouses on the far part of the school. Looking into the balconies Rahkesh noted that the doors were thick, made of solid rock. The not-connected balconies and garden made it hard launch any sort of assault on the building. Climbing between them would take a monkey, or a set of ropes and ladders. The parts that stuck out from the mountainside were made of columns and archways carved of white and peach colored stone. It appeared that most rooms were partially in the mountain partially outside. Though he was certain that they could be closed off completely and everyone moved inside should the need to do so occur.

The road led directly into the mountain, under the school, and out on the other side of the visible buildings. Here a massive stone stables and pastures waited for them. Everyone exited the carriages, Thom still levitating Tanya.

"Well they sure had some amazing designers." Silas said in awe.

"Yes, watch your cat!" Ally warned, the little cub was chasing butterflies. Silas grabbed him up and pulled him away from the horses hooves. The Fire Horses stamped and glared as the kitten was dragged out of reach.

A set of entrance doors, which appeared, because of the intricate carvings, to be very delicate, opened. Revealing that they were actually nearly a meter thick, solid rock. And those carving had hidden runes in them. Ten people walked out. The man they had met earlier at the Garuda, Steve Marluck, was one of them. Some of them wore symbols on their sleeves, shoulders, and chests, markings of rank probably. The woman walking in front was dressed in a silver/gray shirt with a deer hide jacket that was decorated by nearly a dozen different symbols and markings along with silver and blue embroidery. Her black pants were tucked into black boots and she had knives tucked into those. She wasn't particularly old but her hair was white and hung down in two long white braids.

"I am Nvara Aelfly, Headmistress of Akren Mountain School of Magic. Before we do anything else all of you will report to the school doctor. He will help you to heal your injuries, hopefully before dinner. However you will have to do most of it yourselves. But you already know that. Tonight you'll be eating together, tomorrow you will spend the day picking out your classes and testing for your placements within in each class. The day after that you will join the other students." She left then to go remove the Fire Horses from their harnesses. The sorry-looking group followed six others to the infirmary. Marluck and his colleagues stepped in and pulled out those who weren't injured. Marluck stopped Rahkesh and his friends while waving Thom and Tanya through.

"None of you have any injuries? Good. You'll get a head start on your schedules then, come with us." The students followed him silently into the school.

Rahkesh quickly realized that this place was huge. The corridors inside the mountain were massive and well lit by torches, glowing orbs, and plants that hung in baskets with flowers that glowed. Light, brought in through tiny openings, was concentrated in crystals and then sent out in beams across the ceiling. In some places light was used as art, magical fire inside small cups directed light into diamonds where it was concentrated into something almost like a laser beam. These were then bounced around through more diamonds to create intertwined geometric shapes against the walls. They didn't see anyone but it was getting late and the students were probably eating.

The classrooms here were not like those at Hogwarts, Rahkesh noticed this immediately. They had tables and desks but more often than not they were circles of armchairs. And when they weren't these they were open rooms with a large circle of tables and cushioned chairs. Clearly class size must be very small. They arrived at a classroom and the uninjured new students, only eight of them, were told to find seats. Each table had books on it with lists of classes and course descriptions. At once Rahkesh noticed that these were not your average school classes. The class on learning how to swim took only three months. While blood magic was done in six half-year courses. The school did not have Christmas, but they had two weeks at new years, and two weeks over the summer solstice.

Rahkesh made a list of the things he wanted to take, and then set about figuring out what to take first. He intended to do blood magic all the way through. And once the class itself was over if he had the time he could go on in future years to study under the instruction of specialists on his own. Only those that acquired true skill with blood magic during the three years worth of classes would be permitted to go further in the individual study.

He wound up choosing blood magic, transfiguration, thread magic, potions, and a martial arts & muggle weapons training course. Blood magic and thread magic were both half-year courses, to give students a chance to learn if they actually wanted to do them. Rahkesh already knew that he could do blood magic, and had every intention of eventually gaining a mastery at it.

He also wanted to take a course in soul magic. That was very important but could not be taken until he had done blood magic and some necromancy first. Soul magic was important because that was what Voldemort had used to create his Horcruxes. Voldemort was certainly not very skilled with it and probably didn't even know it was a whole field of magic, though a small one. If Rahkesh could learn to use soul magic he would have better luck at finding and destroying Voldemort's Horcruxes, and eventually Voldemort's soul. At present he didn't even know how to identify one.

His two new vampire friends came up with the same choices he did, while Ally substituted thread magic for healing and potions for a course designed to teach its students to be proficient with the most useful spells possible in a year-long period of time.

"Is there a problem with pets?" Silas asked Marluck as the man collected their choices.

"No, the Headmistress has a snow leopard and I have a two-headed giant Fire Salamander so it'd be hypocritical of us. Anything goes, but if it harms another student without provocation you're in trouble, got it?" Marluck said sternly, looking at the young panther. Rahkesh smirked, Sygra was allowed. He hadn't thought anyone would turn her away, not at this school, but it was nice to be sure.

XXXX

The room to which they were assigned would be theirs for all of their time at Akren. Unlike students at Hogwarts the students of Akren each had their own room and their own bathroom. The reasoning behind this was that they were all taking different classes and many of those were at night. Many of the students also needed space to practice their own magic's and potions uninterrupted by another person. After years of dormitory group-living this prospect delighted Rahkesh.

Rahkesh's room was a long rectangle with a bathroom and his own balcony at the back. Most of the rooms had their own balconies or gardens outside. The front half of the room was a workspace with tables, chairs, and bookshelves. The sleeping area was separated from the work area with pale gold, silver, and green silk curtains. Beyond the sleeping area was a door to his bathroom and a set of floor to ceiling windows, one of which opened out onto the balcony. His room was right near his new friends. With Daray and then Silas on one side and Ally on the other. While everyone else worked on choosing their classes and healing their injuries Rahkesh moved in. Putting away the books he had brought, which included his old school books, the books he had copied from the Room of Requirement, and a few dozen others he had bought in Knockturn and Diagon Alleys and transfiguring things to suit his needs.

He had never had the chance to design his own room before and Rahkesh had a lot of fun with it. A big fluffy couch, a really thick cushy carpet, desks and chairs transfigured to exactly the right height for him. He transfigured the bed to be longer and pillows fluffier while raising it so he could store stuff beneath. He built a massive cage beside the bed for Sygra. With several levels and tree to climb from one level to the next, a little bit of running water to drink and live plants. Big enough for a snake ten times her size.

The walls were a little bare but he figured that next time he got out, if ever, he'd find something to put on them. Taking Sygra out of her pouch in his backpack he introduced her to her new home.

_A vast improvement over the place at the shop. _Sygra hissed as she explored.

_It's big enough that if you wanted I could leave a live mouse or two in there. Add some soil and burrow for them. That way you could eat whenever you want._ Rahkesh offered.

_Yes please, a male and a female. If they breed you won't have to worry much about feeding me. Just put some dry mouse-food in there. _Sygra agreed.

_Next time I get a chance to go out I'll catch some._ Rahkesh promised. _There's a door at the top, on the right side, which swings. You can get out and onto the dresser from there. There's a chair and a footstool so you can get to the floor. Just keep all excrement in the cage please. _

_Thank you master. There are people waiting for you outside the door._ Rahkesh went to look and found Silas and his panther cub waiting with Ally to go to dinner. Another advantage of owning a pet you could talk to.

They ate dinner together, all of the new students. The teachers had left and they were on their own, house elves serving the food. Blood appeared in goblets for the vampires, no one wanted to ask where it came from. Saul was talking about the mortals kept in the basement were being used to feed the vampires. No one believed him, the headmistress was a mortal, but was a bit sickening.

"You know Saul, the blood actually comes from the animals they butcher for the meat. You truly are a _pathetic_ excuse for a vampire if you can't taste the difference. This is obviously chicken blood. Are you really such a weak vampire that you can't tell what creature the blood is from?" Daray finally snapped. Saul, well aware that everyone was listening, glared.

"Of course I can tell you fool. As a vampire you _ought_ to have known that I was trying to put the mortals in their place." Saul spat. Whatever Daray had been expecting it wasn't that. Taking one look around the room Daray went right back to his dinner, knowing not to interfere with the furious looks on the faces of every mortal there. Which was probably a wise move since every wand in the room was out and several other weapons. One man had a massive broadsword. Rahkesh finally broke the silence.

"Well Saul_ this_ mortal has already electrocuted you once, shall I do so again? Did it not hurt enough the last time? You seem to have a real thing for pain. You're just asking for it." There were some laughs and most of the humans turned away from the fuming vampire and went back to their food.

XXX

After the incident with Saul the vampires got together that evening, Rahkesh had left his door partially open and could hear them gathering next door in Daray's room. Rahkesh didn't know what was going on but he knew that they had met, and seemed to have decided to ostracize Saul from the vampire population. Rahkesh, awake and trying to figure out who R.A.B was, had heard Daray leaving his room well before dawn. He must have located some of the older students of Akren. By midday Saul was getting cold glares from the vampire students that past them in the hallways as they followed their guides on a tour of the school.

The school was massive, and clearly designed to train people in other things than just magic. The ground floor had the dining room, a pool, and set of massive gyms including a rock wall, and indoor archery range, and a room that could be changed magically to become any terrain for practicing fighting of different surfaces and in different environments. It also had a basement level with dungeons and a series of potions labs open all day every day for anyone who wanted to use them. Students had to find a way to get their own ingredients. Either from the creatures and plants in the valley or from things they grew or raised themselves.

The rest of the school was classrooms and living quarters. There was a healer's wing with several trained healers, greenhouses, and an outdoor pool. During their tour of the greenhouses Rahkesh summoned a pair of field mice to him and tucked them into a small bag in his pocket, to introduce to Sygra later.

The teachers didn't take attendance, getting to class or not was the student's problem. They could leave the valley whenever they wanted to. They could go out through the entrance they had used. The Fire Horses were available for riding, if they would let you on their backs, always a big if. The obstacles on the trail were no longer there and they could fly on broomsticks to the trailheads where the portkeys to take them to the outskirts of the magical section of Regina were waiting there.

Their tests, to see what level of class they should be in, went easily enough. Rahkesh did better than he'd thought he would, thanks to his year of added training in the Room of Requirement. The second day ended on a good note when Tanya rejoined them.

"Tanya! You're awake. Did they figure out why that happened?" Ally asked, pulling the other four members of her group over to see Tanya with her.

"Yes, allergic reaction. It occurs in only a very small percentage of the human population. It's not a bad thing though. What happened was that I was become plant-like." Tanya explained. The other five traded looks, wondering just what was so good about becoming plant-like.

"And what does that mean?" Silas finally asked.

"It means that I can photosynthesize, I can get energy from the sunlight now!" Tanya said, "it's so cool. Oh and thanks for getting me here guys." She added, looking a bit sheepish.

"Sure thing, you scared us when you went white like that." Ally said, Tanya, standing in the sunlight coming in through a window, went bounding off to schedule her classes, whistling. "Wow, a little sunlight and…"

XXX

Their first class was bloodmagic. Rahkesh had brought his knives; they were in the book bag he'd transfigured for himself. The teacher was, interestingly enough, a vampire. A very tall, very handsome, dark haired silver eyed vampire who had a small scar running through one eyebrow and who moved around the room without making the slightest sound. By the way the other vampire's eyes got very wide when he introduced himself as Tristan Namach, Rahkesh guessed he was somebody important. The first thing he did was to start putting up some facts about bloodmagic. Things Rahkesh already knew, that it was mostly done with the users blood and that it wasn't dark magic, and just how dangerous it was. While he was dong this Silas seated on Rahkesh's left leaned over.

"We're actually going to be learning from Namach! He's only the most famous user of bloodmagic ever. He practically invented the art!"

"Who is he?" Rahkesh asked, he recognized the name from his books but couldn't remember anything about him.

"Oh you mortals! He's over three thousand years old. Do you have any idea how few vampires live that long? He was doing bloodmagic back in the Roman Empire! He supposedly only teaches the very highest level of bloodmagic, and then chooses students from that class to work with individually. If you want to become a master at it the only way is to do it as one of his students. The last time he taught a beginner class was in the 1700s! We are so lucky!" Silas gushed, his eyes were practically glowing. Namach suddenly looked up from writing the notes on the board.

"Some of you might wonder why I'm teaching this class, as I usually teach only the best of the highest level class. I lost a bet with the headmistress. And I understand it's _your_ fault." He growled, looking right at Rahkesh, Daray, Silas, and Ally. The four traded worried looks. "You got here earlier than any group has done in decades." Namach explained glumly. "I don't know how Nvara knew, we're not allowed to observe if we're betting on it, but she figured at least one group would be here before nine a.m." The four traded grins, while Rahkesh wondered just how the headmistress could have possibly known they'd make it. Finally Namach turned from the blackboard to look at the class.

"I'm going to start off by telling you that there is a very good chance some of you will die during this class. We lose at least one student every year to blood magic. About, oh, eighty years ago we had a really bad year and lost eleven students." There was some uneasy shifting at this news. "If you do not follow directions exactly you will die. I hope all of you knew that before joining. You should have." He paused and glared around as though he was very sure that a good many of them had had no idea how dangerous it was. "Now bloodmagic is actually the oldest form of magic. However unlike many types of magic it is different for every individual. Bloodmagic is done, usually, by carving the correct runes into your skin using special knives. While doing this the user finds their magic and channels it into the runes as they are cut, forming a connection between the runes and your magic by way of your blood. The runes used for doing this are what vary; the same exact set of runes will not work for everyone. Sometimes differences as minor as a half-millimeter will spell the difference between success and failure. It is important to follow your instincts; they and only they can tell you where to place the runes. If you hand appears to slip while designing the runes do not erase it, start over and see if it happens again. If it does then it is not an accident." Here he paused again and looked over his class, there were ten students, not all of them in their first year of schooling. You could take classes whenever and one of them had been at Akren for three years already. "Each piece of bloodmagic is done in several stages. Stage one lays the foundation and begins the effect; stage two strengthens and directs the magics. There may be anywhere for three to a dozen stages depending upon what you wish to accomplish." He looked around again to make sure everyone had noted that.

"I will say now that some people are able to touch their magic and feel it directing them better than others. If you ever sense the possibility that it just might not be working right and you are unsure about your success stop and don't try to perform any bloodmagic. Leaving the class is better than dying. Attempting bloodmagic does not take bravery nor real intelligence, recognizing and admitting that there is a chance that it won't work for you does. Some people just can't do it. Others have a strong affinity for it." Suddenly Namach turned, straightened, and look right at Rahkesh. "And you have already done some haven't you? What was it?" All eyes turned to look at Rahkesh, some (Saul) with envy, others with awe and a few wondering if he was insane. Rahkesh wasn't sure if he wasn't just as insane as they might think him.

"I've done a little bit of bloodmagic, first stage of a few different things. One piece was for reflexive speed and accuracy, one piece for strength, and one piece for stamina. I have almost completed finding the correct markings for the second part of the stamina piece." Rahkesh answered honestly. All of his were still first stage, the effects were there but they weren't what they would be eventually. He could refine the bloodmagic if future stages to choose which reflexes, if he wanted them to defensive (reacting more to danger and attacking), or to work better in his sleep. He hadn't done anything truly difficult yet.

"You did this on your own?" Namach asked, he sounded impressed, but the look on his showed that he was wondering if Rahkesh wasn't getting ahead of himself.

"I had a lot of help from some books on the subject." Rahkesh answered.

"Do you have the knives you used?" Rahkesh took out the knives, in their plain black metal sheaths, and handed them over. "Ah, these are high quality, and properly stored." Namach added, nodding in approval. Rahkesh had studied how to care for the special blades, which meant filling their sheaths with a certain type of potion, keeping them temperature controled so that the temperature inside the sheath was well below zero, leaving them out in the moonlight on the full moon, and heating the blades with magical fire on both solstices.

"They cost a lot, and I like them, I didn't want to break them so I studied how to care for them before using them." Rahkesh responded. Namach nodded and handed them back.

"One of them is different from the others, did you notice?" Namach questioned, Rahkesh had noticed.

"Yes, it's for the blood magic healing rune rituals, it needs to be washed in unicorn blood every decade. Two years until I have to do that." Rahkesh answered, Namach grinned widely.

"Stop by this evening at five thirty, I'd like to see how well your actually markings worked." Namach said. Rahkesh nodded and put the knives away. Namach turned back to the class.

"As you just saw blood magic requires special knives that have to be stored and cared for in a special manner. Neglect them and the next time you use them they'll kill you, if they don't shatter in your hand when you draw them. Since the knives are rare I don't expect most of you to have them. There is an optional part of this class late in the evening where I will help you to make your own knives. For today, and the next month, we will focus on studying what part of each piece goes where on the body and what order they should be cut in, it differs depending on what the magic is supposed to do."

By the end of class Rahkesh had made more progress on the next step of his stamina bloodmagic and Namach had offered to let him use the rooms the school reserved for blood magic rituals when he was ready. The teacher had scheduled the class to watch some of the older students work on their bloodmagic in a few months but he thought that Rahkesh would be ready for the next part before then. Instead Namach decided to set up a time for Rahkesh to observe a more advanced ritual like the one he would be attempting at an earlier date. "Just so you have a better idea of what will be needed." He explained. Rahkesh agreed, the more advanced the stage you were working on the less guidance anyone could offer. The chance to study someone else could be very helpful as a source of ideas and incase he'd forgotten on of the many little steps in designing his.

XXXX

The transfiguration teacher for their class was very short woman with short blond hair who introduced herself as Professor Walner. She wasn't young but she wasn't exactly old either. She started them off by telling them that they would be learning human transfiguration, and then progressing into the beginnings of animagus transfiguration.

"All students who wish to graduate Akren Mountain School of Magic _must_ become an animagus. For students who do not come to us until they are twenty this is a problem, they have only one year. And that is devoted almost entirely to learning the transformation. Occasionally we have to use time turners with them, but no matter what it takes _everyone_ learns it. Including you werewolves." She added, looking at the three or four in the class. "Yes Rianae?"

"I thought that was impossible." The female vampire said.

"No, just much more difficult. I am a werewolf and I'm currently working with a few of my colleagues and our more talented students to find a way to create _more _than one form." Rahkesh's respect for this teacher went up a lot. She must use the wolfsbane potion because she didn't show the stress Remus did. And wolfsbane was the only thing that lessened the physical stress of the transformations.

"Now when doing human transfiguration you always have to be very careful. If you turn someone into half a jellyfish they'll probably die. We're going to start off with creatures not too unlike ourselves. Other mammals, and we'll be doing hands, feet, and patches of skin first, then continuing into full-body transfigurations." Professor Walner said. The class divided into pairs and each pair given a different type of primate. They began trying to turn their partner's hands or feet into those of the creature. It was not a very difficult assignment, more designed to see their technique then to teach them anything, and by the end of class most of them had progressed on to transfiguring their partners hands into whale fins or cat paws. Rahkesh and Ally, working together got as far as bird talons, which were difficult because the species chosen didn't have five claws. One finger had to be removed during the transfiguration and then put back on when they were turned back into human.

After class Rahkesh and his friends went to find the dining room. The new students had eaten together again at breakfast and apart from their classes they hadn't seen any other students. The dining hall was a massive room with a large buffet lunch set out at the front and hundreds of circular and rectangle tables, some small some large. They dodged paint spells and minor transfiguration charms all the way along the buffet and to their seats, at which point they were left alone.

"What was that about?" Rahkesh asked the students at the next table over, one of whom had thrown a earwax growing hex at him.

"It's tradition, to welcome the new students to their first meal." A young man with wolf tattoos and runes that probably spelled werewolf in some ancient language answered. "Just to see how good your reflexes are." Another werewolf, who appeared to be his older sister, leaned around him.

"And whether or not you'll retaliate." She added, "most people are smart enough not too, since there's a lot more of us than there are of you. That brat got rather upset when we dyed his hair orange." She pointed to the ceiling.

"Oh my, oh that's great." Ally said, Saul was hanging by his ankles from the ceiling, spiders the size of Rahkesh's hand crawled all over him, and his hair was a brilliant shade of orange.

"Don't ever let him down." Rahkesh said, the older students laughed.

Please review!


	7. Chapter 7

Many thankyous to everyone who reviewed.

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- D – I know that Saskatchewan province is in reality literally flatter than a pancake, that's why I chose it. The mountains never actually wore away; they were just picked up and removed from the world by the founders of Akren.

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Chapter 7

Rahkesh left his friends in the dining hall and, following the directions Namach had given him, found the ancient vampire's office. It was not hard to find, it was right next door to the set of chambers set aside for those practicing blood magic. Which made sense since Tristan Namach had more experience in using bloodmagic than almost any other living creature. If anyone got into trouble he'd know what to do, though Rahkesh wasn't sure if there was anything anyone could do for a person who had messed up a bloodmagic ritual. The reason there weren't any other vampires Tristan Namach's age who were adept in bloodmagic was because they had all died.

The door had a picture of a set of bloodmagic knives on it, against a background of glowing runes. Before Rahkesh could knock the door swung open on its own.

"Come in. Watch out for the lizard will you? He's in an awful temper." Professor Namach called from a room further in. The door closed behind Rahkesh on its own. He was inside a small entranceway that widened out into a larger room further in. Stepping forward Rahkesh stopped and stared.

_Wow_ was Rahkesh's first impression. Tristan Namach had, according to Silas, been second in command of the vampires of the city of Rome at one point. Living in hidden magical splendor that outdid even the Emperor's palaces. Even after thousands of years Tristan Namach lived like it was still the height of the Roman Empire. The walls were stone. The floor was marble. The chairs were solid wood with designs in bits of tigers eye and silver. Gold torch brackets with chips of turquoise and obsidian in them were attached to stone columns. Stone mosaics wound between the columns. At the tops of the columns far above there were planters attached, with very powerful magical plants trailing down from them. Some of the leafy bright green and red vines were ten feet long, and still they barely came to the top of Rahkesh's head. The flowers were ones that glowed in the dark with an eerie blue light. Rahkesh didn't remember what they were called. Suits of armor, some of Roman origin some from much, much, earlier stood against the walls in the entranceway. The office, to his right, had an elegant wooden desk and chair with a rug that had to be thousands of years old below them. A pair of fox-fur slippers sat beside the chair glinting with pearls. Wooden bookshelves lined the walls of the office. To his left there were a few steps down into a high-ceilinged sitting room with a low marble and colored glass table. There were two couches, a few small stools, and an armchair made of solid marble. The couches were covered with thick velvet and silk throws. The marble armchair's seat and back was covered in two thick velvet cushions. The floor under the table was an ancient mosaic of colored glass and stones. The ceiling was painted with figures of handsome dark angles, black winged men and women swooping down on the people sitting below. The wall had a series of massive bookshelves made of thin marble. Above them hung a silk tapestry of griffins. Candleholders of twisting, curling black iron hung with strings of beads and jewels were scattered about.

One doorway straight ahead led out between massive stone columns onto a large balcony. Another door on his right past the office area probably led to a bedroom. He couldn't see for sure, strings of glass beads hung across the entrance. A third door on the left behind a couch opened into a very large room that Rahkesh guessed was used for dueling or bloodmagic…or maybe for housing the massive reptile on the floor in front of him. _Namach said to watch out for the lizard. _It was at least as long as he was tall, nose to tail tip, colored green, black, gold and purple. It looked a little like an iguana, but there was a large frill around its neck and when it saw him that frill expanded outward, showing it to be bright orange and red inside. It hissed threateningly at him and Rahkesh backed away. The lizard's black eyes watched him and its bright purple tongue flicked at the air. That tail has spines on it, and the reptile's claws were huge.

"That isn't a regular frill-necked-lizard is it?" Rahkesh called, rather hoping the vampire would calm the lizard down since he wasn't looking forward to trying to get around it. Professor Namach appeared in the doorway that led to the bedroom holding a crystal glass of what was probably blood. He leaned against the door and watched, amused, as Rahkesh slowly moved away from the irritated lizard. Which was crouching like it was about to lunge.

"No of course not. It's the magical cousin of the frill-neck. Very rare, very difficult to manage. But they are highly intelligent and they do make good pets. He's in a bit of bad mood right now. I stepped on his tail again you see, and when he jumped away he wound up in his water bowl, very undignified." Namach explained, winking, and then calmly stepped over the hissing lizard and down into the sitting room. It snapped at his foot but the vampire jerked away too quickly and rapped it sharply over the nose in reprimand. The seething animal let out a roar and spat at him. Namach pulled a large glass container from somewhere and collected the spit in it.

"It spits venom, like a cobra does, aims for the eyes. Very useful stuff. Now stop that Eli, we have a guest. There's a good reptile." The lizard did not appreciate being called reptile. And it didn't seem to care that there was company, it hissed and rattled its frill angrily. Namach turned away and beckoned Rahkesh after him. Rahkesh followed, keeping an eye on the animal's sharp teeth. Professor Namach sat down on one of the couches and gestured for Rahkesh to sit on one of the stools.

"You said you had completed three pieces of stage one bloodmagic? Or was that just what you were willing to tell the class?"

"No, only three. I am trying to work on one to make my body use oxygen more efficiently so high altitudes won't bother me but-"

"Don't." The professor interrupted him. "Don't try that kind of stuff yet. Stamina, strength, and reflexive speed are all things your body can get better at naturally given the right training. The bloodmagic will make it easier and quicker. If you want to start on the runes for improving the way the human body works I suggest you get to at least the third stage of the stamina set, you'll need its help to complete something as advanced as oxygen usage. That set of runes is much more complex than the others and it requires physical training at high altitudes before you can manage it. You also have to do the actual ritual at somewhere between twelve thousand and fifteen thousand feet above sea level if you want it to actually work." Rahkesh nodded. He was almost ready for the second stage of the stamina blood magic. With luck he'd be ready for the altitude one in about eight to ten months.

"Did you have any trouble with the three sets you have?"

"I'm not sure I'd know if I did."

"Dizziness for a few days afterward is common of bloodmagic that didn't set into the body right. Nose bleeds, blurred vision, headaches, feeling the need for much more sleep than you would otherwise need. Difficulty with simple spells?" Namach suggested. Rahkesh shook his head.

"No, actually I felt better after the rituals than before. No problems at all." Then he remembered and corrected that, "well, actually, my sense of balance was a little off. But I thought that was from the runes on my heels and ankles." Namach blinked and put down his glass.

"Your _heels and ankles?_"

"Well yes, the runes for the stamina one…" Rahkesh saw that Namach was still staring at him. "They're not supposed to be one the heels and ankles?"

"No. Not normally. Not until the third stage." His teacher replied, "let me see." Rahkesh shrugged and took off his boots, he was sure he hadn't messed up. The runes felt natural and the placements of the runes on his feet were the ones he felt the surest of. Namach took his foot and began to examine the runes.

"Let me guess, the other foot is exactly symmetrical?" he finally said, dropping Rahkesh's foot back to the floor.

"Yes." Rahkesh answered, wondering how Namach had known that. Bloodmagic runes were almost never symmetrical on different limbs. Namach must have sensed Rahkesh's confusion because he answered before Rahkesh could ask.

"It's common for unusually placed runes to be symmetrical. Do you have another set on your back?"

"Yeah. Again it's a little different." Rahkesh said, knowing that the runes on his neck and back were actually very different from anything the book had shown. Professor Namach gestured for him to turn around and take off his shirt, which Rahkesh did.

"You said they were a _little_ different. That set on your neck would normally be on the shoulders." Rahkesh shrugged.

"It felt right this way. I tried other designs but they didn't work so well. I didn't feel I could channel them properly." Professor Namach rose and began examining the set of runes across his back. That particular set had been very difficult; he'd had to levitate the knife wandlessly to manage them. The runes were a series of large circles that covered most of his back, with smaller circles inside, with several sets of runes inside them. His bloodmagic runes were not so very different from what most people had. The differences were small enough that few people would really notice them.

"The circle patterns would usually be lined up with the vertebrae." But Tristan Namach would of course notice every difference. Rahkesh wondered exactly how much could be told just from irregularities in bloodmagic runes. "They're fine the way they are, every individual has a slightly different way of balancing the runes. But when you begin your second set make sure that they cross every vertebrae. It will center the magic within you and keep the whole piece tied together. " The professor stepped back and handed him his shirt.

"Your runes are very odd. Are you planning on pursuing a career in soul magic?" He asked. Rahkesh froze, he hadn't been aware you could tell that just from a bunch of slightly off runes.

"Yes. I'd like to get a mastery in soul magic as well as blood magic." He answered finally.

"Because you find it interesting? Or because of necessity?" Namach asked. Rahkesh wondered if he already knew the answer.

"A bit of both. I have a strong interest in blood and soul magic. And because I have a lot of friends who are not entirely human. I don't like hearing people refer to them as if they didn't have souls and are worthless just because of what species they are. I'd like to be able to explore differences in the souls of different species, if there are any. And I find soul magic to be really interesting. Blood magic I like because of what it can do and because I think it should be more widely taught. It _is_ possibly the most powerful form of magic usage ever created." Rahkesh said. Professor Namach seemed to accept his explanation, which was mostly true. The only thing he'd left out was the hope that bloodmagic and soul magic could give him an edge against Voldemort.

"You have a great capacity for blood magic. And the fact that your stamina runes directed you to place them on your feet indicates that you have the ability to at least begin work in soul magic. The blood magic used in soul magic encompass the entirety of both feet several times over. Why exactly no one knows, but the runes you already have should stop the soul magic from ever overwhelming the bloodmagic. That is a real risk you know." Rahkesh did know, his books on bloodmagic had mentioned what had happened to hundreds of people who attempted soul magic. Only to find that their bloodmagic wasn't capable of blending with it. None of them survived. Namach paused and took a drink from his glass, forehead creased as he thought. "You haven't done enough bloodmagic to tell for sure yet, but most of your magic is centered around survival and fighting. However I find it very interesting that the runes on your back indicate that you also could be very good at large-scale nonviolent magical undertakings. Like the type of wards and enchantments that protect and created Akren. Combining the two will be difficult. But if you do have that capability then the rues you use will continue to move farther and farther away from the normal sets."

"Why is that?" Rahkesh asked.

"Because most people use bloodmagic to achieve one thing at a time. They can't do broader pieces of magic. They want to increase only stamina and do that. They look only to improving themselves, rather than improving the way they interact with their magic.

It is always a fight with their magic. Their ability to mesh their will with the way that their magic works within them is minimal. Your ability to do so is massive. You improve yourself and reach a greater connection with your magic at the same time. You can meld the way your magic works with your purpose. You don't fight your magic, as most people do, forcing it to do work. You open yourself to the magic and let it do the work the way it _can_, rather than the way you _want_ it to. That is what gives the possibility of both fighting runes and those needed for larger feats of magic." Namach paused again to think.

"People pay to much attention to what is normal. Not everyone can use the same wand movements. Some people can't use them at all, but they are taught that they need those wand movements. And so they force their magic into those movements, thereby weakening the effect. Bloodmagic will often work much the same way. The same runes work for most people, but often people forget to rely on instinct and instead try to do things the same way others do. You do whatever feels natural and necessary without bother to care about whether or not it is normal." He paused again.

"And of course people often try to make runes that cool rather than runes that work." He added finally with a snort and a shake of his head. Rahkesh realized he'd never even thought of that. After a pause Namach rose and walked back across the room towards his balcony. Rahkesh, sensing their meeting was over, rose and went towards the door. Side stepping the lizard curled up on the floor.

"Let me know when you are ready to try the next set of your stamina runes." Professor Namach said.

"Sure, and thanks professor." Namach just nodded and went outside. Rahkesh left. It was getting late and he was sure the others would be waiting for him.

He entered his room and saw at once that he had been right. Ally was in his armchair while the two vampires were on the couch. Nuri the panther cub stretched out across their laps. Rahkesh glanced quickly at Sygra's cage, wondering if perhaps he should have placed charms on it so that the young panther culdn't smell her. Sygra was watching his guests warily

_I wasn't sure if you wanted them here. But there are four of them so I thought I'd wait rather than attack._ The snake hissed softly.

"Well? How'd it go?" Ally asked immediately. Rahkesh shrugged and took one of the small toy-sized armchairs off the shelf over his desk. Placing it on the floor he enlarged it and sat down. It was a good system for storing furniture.

"How did you get in here? The door was locked." Rahkesh asked. He was sure he'd locked the door.

"The balcony." Silas said, grinning. Rahkesh glanced over to the open windows and realized he hadn't put any locks on them. He'd have to do that soon. "Vampires can jump between these balconies, though a mortal would have difficulty. We just levitated Ally over.

"Well? What's he say?" Ally asked again.

"He said there was nothing wrong with the bloodmagic I had done. And suggested I take the soul magic classes once I've finished the required bloodmagic classes."

"Soul magic. You want to try for a mastery in that?" Silas asked.

"Sure. Why not?"

"Are you aware of the death rate for mortals who attempt that?" The vampire replied. Rahkesh shook his head. "Only one in a hundred and forty mortals manage it. Most of them have to become vampires to be capable of the magic required for mastery."

"Well he didn't mention that." Rahkesh said.

"Let us know if you decide to change." Daray said. "We'd be happy to turn you."

"I think I'd rather stay a mortal thanks." Rahkesh replied, Ally laughed at the vampire's disappointed looks.

"Bloodsucking fiends." Neither vampire appeared at all insulted.

"Proud of that too." Silas said, grinning, consciously enlarging one fang to show off. Rahkesh had been surprised to learn that vampires could hide their teeth, and that the fangs were not consistent with a mortal's canines, but were instead the teeth in front of the canines. When not in use they appeared perfectly normal.

"Uh, Daray, is that yours?" Rahkesh asked, just noticing the creature lying on the back of the couch behind the vampire's head.

"Oh, you haven't met him yet. Rahkesh, meet Satan, he's a magical vampire bat." Daray said, picking up the foot long creature. It was a massive vampire bat. Bright red eyes, white fangs, silver claws, and leathery skin blacker than the inside of a cave. _How typical_. Rahkesh thought.

"Why Satan?"

"Well I had to name him something. You can't have a pet and _not_ name it." Daray said.

"But why Satan?"

"It fits him doesn't it?"

"_Satan?_" Daray finally noticed Rahkesh's skeptical look.

"He breathes fire."

"Oh."

"He'll grow a few more inches yet. They're usually about a foot and a half long. Gorgeous isn't he?'

"Uh, sure." Rahkesh said. Personally he thought that, moving on its feet and wingtips across the couch, it looked a bit like Norbert, crossed with something vaguely furry and dark colored, like a spider. Even if he hadn't known it drank blood it would still appear threatening. Trust Daray, the quintessential vampire if there ever was one, to have a blood drinking magical bat for a pet. And to name it after the devil. The bat made a sound between a hiss and a chirp and Daray picked it up again.

"He hasn't eaten yet, and I'm not letting him out until he's full grown. Goodnight" He said, and left the room, cooing at the creature. Rahkesh couldn't hear, but he could have sworn he heard Daray say something about getting Satan some nice Fire Horse blood.

"He really has memorized the vampire guidebook hasn't he?" Rahkesh said, nodding to the wall separating their rooms once he heard the door to Daray's room close. Ally snickered and Silas grinned and nodded.

"The worst part is that it comes naturally to him." He agreed. "And he has no idea just how cliché he his."

-

XXXX

"Crap!" Rhakesh said, glaring at the mess of threads on the table. Thread magic class taught by professor Stiali was rapidly becoming his least favorite subject. Actually it already was. One month into the class he had yet to do the tiniest bit of magic.

They had started off with the simplest things. Two heavy chains hanging from the ceiling and two pieces of thread. They were supposed to tie the two chains together by tying the threads together. The rest of the class was showing a good deal of success. Rianae had gotten to four chains and was tying intricate Celtic knots with her four pieces of thread, the chains perfectly mirroring everything she did.

Rahkesh's chains unraveled as quickly as the series of knots had done and were now swinging. At least they hadn't broken again. The only thing magical he'd managed so far was to break six sets of chains. Caused by putting too much magic into the threads, and concentrating the magic in one spot rather than over the entire length of the thread. The uneven buildup made them brittle and the amount of power he could focus into the spell had been enough to shatter the heavy chains like dry leaves. Professor Stiali found this very amusing, and perplexing. Rahkesh had both the talent and the skill and understanding of magic to be able to do thread magic, it just wasn't happening.

"Try again." Stiali instructed, and watched as Rahkesh began again. Slowly tying the threads together as he concentrated on making what the threads did become reality in the chains. Minutes later he had shattered his seventh set of chains and the threads, fueled by his annoyance, proceeded to burst into flames. The chains, despite being metal, followed suit and were reduced to ash in seconds.

"Sorry." Rahkesh said, conjuring up another set of chains. Stiali shook his head and grinned.

"You are very odd Rahkesh Asmodaeus. Plenty of power skill and ability. There is no reason why this shouldn't be working for you. If it doesn't improve soon I would suggest you switch classes. There's no point in spending half a year on something if you're just incapable of doing it. Try something else and maybe come back to thread magic in a few years. Or it may be that you just can't do it. Some people can't, though I've never seen someone with you abilities who couldn't." The professor suggested. Rahkesh nodded, he ad been thinking about that himself. Wandless magic class was looking better and better.

Beside him Rianae stopped using chains and began levitating a chair with a piece of thread. Rahkesh scowled. Rianae had offered to help him but after an hour or so they had come to the conclusion that Rahkesh was doing the exact same thing she was, and it wasn't working for him. Rahkesh decided he would find out what time the beginner-level wandless magic classes were that evening after dinner. This was a waste of time.

Aside from thread magic all of his classes were going very well. Rahkesh was well ahead of everyone else, except for Daray and Silas who had some training already and were finished with all the theory parts of blood magic and had already proved to Namach that they could find their magic and bring it into a ritual.

The martial arts/muggle weapon course easily the most physically demanding thing Rahkesh had ever done. They wouldn't start on the weapons until halfway through the year. The first half was focused on hand to hand fighting and getting in shape. It was repetitive, endless series of punches and kicks. But the occasional sparring was fun. Rahkesh was sure that, since few of them had ever fought before, they probably looked completely ridiculous. He gave thanks every day for having the forethought to learn and practice fighting while living in the Room of Requirement. And for his bloodmagics. The class was divided so that the stronger, faster, more resilient vampires and werewolves didn't accidentally harm mortal students. But Rahkesh often wound up with the vampires and werewolves when there was an uneven number of students. While not having the speed or the strength to really compete with them he could be assured of not taking any extreme injuries accidentally. And with some of the tricks he'd learned during his time in the Room of Requirement he could often hold his own against the vampires who hadn't had any training yet.

Veela students were taught in their own group, since Veela of both genders had a tendency to transform when fighting. Most of their lessons concentrated around not doing that, or controlling the transformation so that only the claws showed. There were a surprising number of Veela, but even more surprising were the four goblins. They were a year older, but when Akren said everyone was welcome, they meant it.

The physical exercise was designed to get them fit for full-scale mock battles through the forests around the school. Running obstacles courses filled with things they had to jump, ropes to climb, cliffs to scramble up, walls to climb over, magical plants lashing out at them that they had to dodge. And the occasional teacher hurling fireballs and lightning bolts, all while being timed. Rahkesh liked being outdoors, and Akren valley was beautiful, if they had to do this sort of thing there were definitely worse places to do it. It was hard and exhausting, but Rahkesh didn't mind it much, he was pretty good at this sort of thing, he'd had plenty of practice. Mad-Eye Moody would have liked it. It was all to easy to fall into a trance-like state while running the longer stretches that had no obstacles, and to miss the little warnings that there was something up ahead around the next bend. Like the time one of the Veela students had missed the fresh bear tracks and scat and run smack into a grisly. Constant Vigilance and a healthy amount of paranoia about just what might be lurking in between the thick trees quickly became a state of mind.

Silas and Daray, both of whom had been moved up into a more advanced group for the martial arts classes, offered to tutor Ally and Rahkesh in the evenings after they had all finished their homework. Once it became known that they were practicing in the indoor gym in the evenings other students started showing up to join in and within a few weeks there was an informal club of sorts gathering four or five nights a week.

-

-

Well? Tell me what you think. Original enough? Tristan Namach a little too odd? Should Rahkesh ever get more pets than just Sygra?


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Professor Stiali?" Rahkesh called, knocking. A moment later the oak door opened.

"I was wondering when you'd come by. Decided to drop the class?" Professor Stiali asked, his pale blue eyes showing only amusement and no upset over Rahkesh's decision. It was Saturday afternoon and Rahkesh hadn't been hiding the fact that the week before was his last shot at thread magic.

"Yes, sorry but it just doesn't seem to be working." Rahkesh said, knowing that he didn't have to explain any further. Two months into the year and he had still not managed even the most basic thread magic. He did everything he was supposed to. It wasn't that, the magic just wouldn't work.

The premise of thread magic was that people tended to be good at magic when they were using something to concentrate on while doing magic, besides the magic itself. You used something small to complete a task with something much bigger. Tie the correct knots and it will happen. A bit like wand magic, these movements, this word, and it will happen.

Those who specialized in thread magic had no need to duel. They just pulled out a piece of thread and tied a few knots in it, imagining the knots, as they tightened, tying the person's limbs together. By tying a noose and slowly tightening it, while willing the noose to exist in reality around an enemy's neck, they could kill a person from rooms away. Most people never got past simple stuff; using thread magic to break wards wasn't too hard apparently. You just pulled the knots around the wards, and then burned the thread, destroying the wards themselves. Killing people from a distance was the kind of stuff only a true master of thread magic could do, and most of them had so much difficulty with it that they didn't bother.

The easy thread magic was like wand magic. The advanced thread magic was much more like bloodmagic and wandless magic. It was largely personal and couldn't be learned from a book. But even at that stage it was akin to wand magic in that the correct knots would achieve something. Timing and the space between knots became individualized.

The reason why Rahkesh had been intent upon learning thread magic was that thread magic was one of the most powerful forms of magic used to create short-term wards. A set of wards around, say, a building, could not be overpowered. You had to destroy the threads holding the ward up. These could be hidden, sometimes inside the building itself, making a forced entry nearly impossible. The only way to overcome it would be to get someone else just as powerful in thread magic to outdo the wards. These wards didn't last long, only a few months at the most, the threads decayed, or couldn't stand that much magic for so long. There was no way to get around the short-term side of thread magic, but short term it was quicker and just as powerful as bloodmagic.

Rahkesh could not figure out why he couldn't do it, but when using the threads he couldn't find his magic. He couldn't locate the power he had learned to find for use in bloodmagic, or wand magic. It seemed to him that the threads ruined his usual connection to his magic. Professor Stiali was as much at a loss as he was, having never seen anything like it.

But Tristan Namach just smiled and nodded when Rahkesh mentioned it. When questioned all he would say was that it was expected. Rahkesh, angry that he wouldn't explain further, had demanded to know _why_ he had expected it. Professor Namach replied that the threads Rahkesh should learn to use were not the type of threads professor Stiali knew how to use.

Unfortunately he also claimed that _he_ didn't know what threads those would be either. Rahkesh remembered _that_ conversation, a week earlier when he had been putting in a last ditch effort to get somewhere with his thread magic.

"There was a vampire I once knew, a true ancient, who did thread magic without visible threads." Namach explained. They were in his rooms again; Rahkesh had just brought him his latest version of the second stage stamina runes. "I think you should try to find other threads rather than the bits of string Stiali, and everyone else, uses." Rahkesh was pacing across the sitting room and back again. Frustrated and angry. There was no reason for him to be failing so completely at thread magic. Namach had several books written by that one oddball vampire, but they hadn't given any insight into his unusual ability. Whatever that ability actually _was_.

"Not threads of the type used in invisibility cloaks?" He asked when he finally paused. Namach dismissed that idea at once.

"No. Those aren't actually invisible you know, only when woven into the cloaks. No he used something else." Rahkesh sighed and shook his head, what else was there? "The only definite thing about that old vampire was that he could do thread magic without visible thread, and that he was one of the early users of necromancy." Professor Namach continued thoughtfully. Rahkesh raised an eyebrow. Threads weren't used in any part of necromancy he knew of. "You must understand I didn't know that vampire very well. He was an ancient, and I do mean ancient as in over two and half thousand years old, when I was only in my second century. He was one of the earliest of our kind, I think. You know he was the one to think of using necromancy to question the dead during murder trials."

"Really." Rahkesh said, using necromancy like that had fallen out of favor after a few badly trained necromancers had actually summoned the corpses into the trial room and somehow they had eaten someone. And there had been a few necromancers who used their knowledge to raise armies. Witches and wizards were incapable of realizing that some…_all_ magic, was neither good nor bad, it depended upon how you used it. They wanted everything to be black and white. Good or evil. It was like parseltounge, it wasn't evil, it was just an ability. Why did people have to be so stupid? Well, they weren't. Outside of Europe parseltounge wasn't evil and necromancers were still called into murder trials whenever possible.

"No one who might have been close to him is still alive then?"

"No. They all died with the destruction of Atlantis. That was before my time. When I met him he was quite a loner, rarely spoke. He gave a few lectures on early necromancy shortly after I started to rebuild the whole field of death magic use, and I never saw him again." Namach paused and thought for a moment, "everyone always says that I invented necromancy, well I did, but before that there was death magic in use, it was just very different. He is dead, I know that. Died while stopping a plague that could have wiped out every human in the world." Namach said sadly with apparent genuine regret.

"Well thank you for trying." Rahkesh said, handing the books back. Namach just nodded.

"You'll figure it out. Just give it time; you mortals tend to be very impatient. " He said smiling. Rahkesh just nodded, thinking that he might not _have_ time. Power he had, understanding of magic he had, _time_ was in short supply. But if thread magic was out then he'd have to develop other skills.

"Yes, perhaps after I start working on necromancy." He agreed. Turning to leave he nearly tripped over Eli, the lizard had been standing right behind him. The frill unfolded halfway and the long whip-like tail began to lash like a cats. It glared at him as Rahkesh carefully walked around it. The creature was continuously bad tempered with everyone but its owner, and often as not him as well.

"In the meantime this latest version of your stamina runes looks good. Keep working on revising it and you should be ready soon, remember the vertebrae, you might want to try the set of runes for your back again. Make sure that this is right." Namach said, handing the diagrams back. Rahkesh nodded, boldly patted the annoyed lizard on the head, and left.

Namach hadn't been able to help, but the conversation had led Rahkesh to hope that in a few years he might be able to try thread magic again. Perhaps he would discover whatever that old vampire had used during his necromancy training.

Other than those extremely un-helpful books there were no clues as to Rahkesh's disability (Rahkesh's term for it). Rahkesh had spent his second month at Akren pouring over every book on thread magic the library had, and many on odd blood magic runes, and turning up nothing. He'd used the same potions he'd used in the room of requirement to help him stay awake and concentrate all night for weeks, but it hadn't done any good. Professor Stiali had probably been waiting for Rahkesh to finally give up.

"That's fine Rahkesh. What are you taking instead?"

"Wandless magic. I've been practicing on my own for a while so I'm not far behind the class, actually I'm a bit ahead of them on the practical stuff." In reality the tests Professor Havari Yetran had given him showed Rahkesh to be many months ahead in the actual use of wandless magic, and a few weeks behind on the theory side. She had thought that Rahkesh would be a very good influence on the class, many of whom were starting to get a little put off by the fact that no one had managed any wandless magic yet. Apparently the reason people didn't do wandless magic was because results took time, and many people weren't capable of it at all.

Interestingly the reason why people generally failed at wandless magic was the same reason Namach had given for most people failing at bloodmagic. They were too used to wands and incantations, and they all thought that that was the only way to do magic. Everyone wanted a definite way, with no obscurity. Do this and this happens.

They also expected the magic to just happen, like it did for most with thread magic, rather than bringing it up from within themselves and giving it purpose. With wandless and blood magic you let the magic do its task with more instinctive, less forceful guidance. But at the same time you had to have immense willpower, this confused most people. To Rahkesh it made perfect sense. You gave it the purpose, and you gave it the will to accomplish that purpose, the actual the direction you gave to the magic on how to accomplish that purpose was minimal. Again, most people didn't understand it at all.

Everyone tried to do wandless magic the exact same way, when wandless magic, almost as much as bloodmagic, depended upon the individual. No book or teacher could teach you everything. Each person had to figure it out for themselves. Hermione would have thrown a fit at the idea of books being useless. But it was the truth; no instructor could describe how _you_ should work with _your_ magic. Some people needed hand gestures, some didn't. Yetran had told him that her grandmother could only do wandless magic when using no hand movements, and incantations in Hebrew. Despite not being Jewish. It was all about how you focused and worked with your magic to cause things to happen.

What Rahkesh had learned about doing most spells, to think about exactly what was happening, air moving to replace the movement of an object, cells changing shape from plant to animals cells, those things helped with wandless magic too. There were so many variables, most of which couldn't even be accurately described. But Rahkesh had found something that worked for him, a little. He hadn't tried a great variety of things, but summoning charms came easily. While in the Room of Requirement he had discovered that he had better luck doing the summoning charm wandlessly than he did silently. Though it still worked best with a wand and incantation. Professor Yetran had said that roughly a third of the students would drop the class eventually. Most made it through a year or two, beyond that level they couldn't do anything more. And Akren students were chosen because they were above average.

While wandless magic and bloodmagic could be easily compared to each other, thread magic was more like wand magic, more definite, make these knots and somehow (the part Rahkesh didn't get) it will work. It will work better for some than for others, some people might want to adjust the distances between the knots on a thread (which was synonymous to the personalized minor changes in wand movements that most people used), but it will work. For everyone but Rahkesh. The _Goblins_ could do more thread magic than him, and they usually preferred stones and metals!

But he was very capable with bloodmagic, and with a little guidance his wandless magic also showed a great deal of promise.

"You're that good at wandless magic?" Professor Stiali asked.

"Yes, I really like it. And I'm not getting anywhere with thread magic, maybe I just don't have the imagination for it. Anyhow I decided to play to my strengths." Rahkesh said.

"Well good luck then. Try thread magic again in a few years." Professor Stiali advised, "perhaps after you've gotten into the practical side of necromancy. Namach told me," he explained, seeing Rahkesh's startled look. "We were discussing your unusual distribution of strengths."

"Okay." Rahkesh said, knowing that within a few years he'd probably be too far into other forms of magic to find the time. Maybe later, after Voldemort was dead. He started back to his own rooms. The students of the martial arts and weapons class had been out all day playing a game of violent hide and seek against older students. And he still had essays to write. And then he needed to reinforce the wards on his room to keep the vampires out.

The vampires at Akren had the option of drinking the animal blood provided by the school. Most of them did, some of the time. Vampires did not like animal blood all the time, they got tired of the taste. And at the same time the lack of human blood could slowly weaken them, particularly impacted was their ability to withstand sunlight. This was obviously a major problem after a few weeks of only animal blood.

Apart from the animal blood the vampire students could hunt in any of the larger nearby cities. The local vampire residents had strict rules, violently enforced, keeping the Akren students from preying upon the small towns. But in the cities there were plenty of prey and the local City Masters kept their vampire population lower than normal specifically so that the Akren students could go there without being an extra burden. Rahkesh hadn't understood why the City Masters would do this until Daray had explained that they just wanted to be able to get to know the young vampires at Akren, looking for possible recruits for their private armies or just for networking.

Those cities however, had few magical humans, and so the Akren vampires rarely had magical human blood unless they found a willing witch or wizard, or bought blood. Even if they had had plenty of magical blood Rahkesh was pretty sure they would still have gone for their fellow students, the lack of access just gave them extra reason. And so every student kept their rooms warded, and an unwarded room was basically an invitation, and Rahkesh had been noticing some minor attacks on his wards. Vampires testing them to determine what they were and how strong. Rahkesh knew almost nothing about protecting his living space. He had used spells often used to for pranking. He needed better wards.

And not just to keep out vampires after his blood. Daray and Silas had taken to appearing suddenly in his rooms as a joke and Rahkesh wanted to know how on earth the vampires were getting in. His wards were never broken, the locks hadn't been picked, there were no false walls or trapped doors, but still they appeared silently. The reason they did it of course was because it drove Rahkesh crazy trying to figure out how they managed it. He'd even tried putting truth potions in their blood with the evening meal, to no success since they both realized it was there and left before he could ask them anything. The day before he'd finally caught Silas in an electrically charged net he'd set up, and Silas hadn't tried to sneak in since - being found at dawn hanging in a fishing net from a balcony had to be embarrassing, but he hadn't figured out how Daray got in. Even antiportkey wards turned up nothing. At this rate his rooms were going to be the most strongly warded place in Akren. Ally of course found the whole thing hilariously funny. _She _wasn't rooming next door to the vampires after all, and that small distance seemed to stop Daray from getting into her rooms, though Silas had tried, and succeeded, up until she'd hexed him and his ears had wound up sprouting daffodils. That had somehow deterred him.

When not going after other student's blood it was still some sort of great game for the students of Akren, especially the vampires, to sneak into the other students rooms. Occasionally students did it to prank each other but mostly just to test their wits against someone else. Rahkesh personally thought that since they didn't sleep as much as any of the other students the vampires had too much free time and went a little stir crazy. It was a good thing Akren didn't accept squibs; it was tough enough for a wizard of Rahkesh's power to keep the "bloodsucking fiends" from leaving frog eggs in his bathtub. Anyone without much magic would have had an awful time of it.

And speaking of squibs, Voldemort had been killing off squibs at an alarming rate. Rahkesh didn't understand why they didn't just leave and go elsewhere. But he had noticed that European wizards tended to act like magic didn't exist beyond the boundaries of Europe. Except perhaps for some of the Ministry members.

The violence had been quickly escalating, with the death eaters trying to outdo each other in how horrific their crimes were. The Prophet didn't report all the details but it didn't take much of an imagination to figure them out. No one went anywhere alone, but from what the papers said that might be safer as the death eaters had taken to visiting places where groups might meet like just outside certain shops or entrances to Diagon Alley.

The students of Akren kept up to date but there wasn't a lot of talk about it. Rahkesh wished he could discuss what was going on with someone, but he wasn't ready to reveal his identity yet. The assassins might guess at where he was, but he didn't have to help them. And unless they were former students they weren't going to be a real worry once he was out of school anyway. Akren Mountain School was a declared neutral zone in all wars. Many former students were paid assassins, but they couldn't kill on school grounds. The magical backlash would kill them. For this Rahkesh was very grateful. He hadn't learned how to disguise his magical signature yet, and he worried about people finding out who he was that way.

Rahkesh had been reading the Daily Prophet, Akren had all magical, and almost a hundred non-magical, newspapers delivered to the school library every day. This made it easy for Rahkesh to avoid attention. He read several wizarding newspapers every day and one of them happened to be the Daily Prophet. Another was from Australia, and one from Brazil (Silas had told him that Brazil had an amazingly large concentration of magical people, compared to similar sized areas.). He could keep up on what was going on without anyone realizing where he actually came from. Rahkesh had thought it out beforehand and had managed to mangle and at least semi-disguise his accent in the Room of Requirement. He didn't know how well it had worked but no one had asked too many questions about where he came from. Though students usually didn't ask questions about other student's origins as rule.

Hogwarts had reopened on it's later than usual date without any problems, under the direction of Headmistress Minerva McGonagal. And by all accounts was running smoothly. Some students had been withdrawn, a lot of them actually. And many parents of new students, especially muggleborns, were sending their children overseas for schooling rather than risk Hogwarts. Hogwarts long-standing reputation as one of the safest places to be was completely gone. American and Canadian schools seemed to be taking in the bulk of these students. Voldemort had an obsession with Europe, the UK particularly, and didn't seem to care if a lot of fairly talented people slipped out of the country.

Rahkesh wondered if anyone he knew had changed schools, but he had no way to find out. Akren did have a short winter break, one week of which overlapped with Hogwarts winter break and Rahkesh planned to try to find out what was happening to his old friends then.

Apart from his last note he had not communicated with any of them. And he was surprised, very surprised, to find that he did not miss them. He wasn't sure if he should feel guilty about that, but he really did prefer his new friends. Silas and his panther cub, Ally with her quick thinking and sarcastic sense of humor, Daray being at once a good friend and ferocious ally while also somehow always being the typical vampire in every respect. He didn't miss Hermione being a know-it-all, Ron being temperamental and rather slow, didn't miss the complications of his short relationship with Ginny at all, didn't miss the bickering.

His new friends were all realists, and maybe that was the difference. They had no illusions about how life was supposed to be, they took events as they happened and reacted. He trusted them, after only a few months, easily as much as he had ever trusted Ron and Hermione.

And truly these three were much more like him than his old friends had been. It wouldn't be him on the front lines; he could count on these friends to be at least his equals in everything he tried. He had never had an occasion where he didn't want to be around them because of their being temperamental, rude, or annoying. He felt bad about it, but he didn't really miss his old friends. Except perhaps for Neville. Neville might have done well Akren. Away from all the family history at Hogwarts he might have thrived amongst the students of Akren. Except Neville might have had trouble with the whole violence thing, and the casual attitude towards killing and death, and the bullying of weaker students. Perhaps Neville would not have done so well.

In fact the only people he did miss, apart from Dumbledore, were Remus, Tonks, Kingsley, and Mad Eye Moody. Despite what had happened in his fourth year Rahkesh trusted that old auror even more than he had ever trusted Dumbledore. He could not be sure why, but Moody was one of the few people he really trusted.

He did wonder though, about what was going on that wasn't making the Prophet. Rahkesh hadn't heard what the distribution of students seeking an education elsewhere was among the houses, but he was sure that most of them were in Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Slytherins would stay, they were purebloods and purebloods were much more oblivious to the existence of the rest of the world than others. And it was safe for them.

Had Voldemort marked any others, like he had with Malfoy, at an unprecedented young age? Rahkesh had no way of knowing or finding out. But it didn't interest him as much as he thought it should. He was preoccupied with Akren, and with finding the elusive Horcruxes. There had been no progress there, to the point that Rahkesh had slowly focused on his schooling and left the Horcruxes to themselves for a bit. He didn't even know how to destroy them if he could find them, so what was the point in finding them?

After several months away from his friends and Hogwarts a new question was starting to form. Did he want to go home? Or had home become somewhere else? He had to kill Voldemort, he would do that, but did he really want to hang around his old home any longer than was absolutely necessary? The answer was starting to sound like no.

Rahkesh sat down at his desk and began the work he would have to make up for his wandless magic class. Two months into the year it wasn't anything he didn't already know yet, but it was a lot of work.

His friends had been supportive of his decision to switch classes, they all seemed to think he would do better at it if he came back to thread magic later. And of course Daray and Silas agreed with everything Tristan Namach said.

But he wasn't looking forward to hearing what some of the anti-mortal vampires had to say.

XXX

"How's it goin'?" A lazy, drowsy voice asked. Rahkesh froze at the sound of another voice, his quill hovering over the inkwell. Someone had managed to get into the room without him noticing. He turned and looked, already knowing what he'd find.

Daray was sprawled out, looking like some giant lazy cat, on the huge puffy green couch that ran along the wall, looking very pleased with himself.

He was the only person Rahkesh knew who could get into and all the way across the study part of his room without being noticed. Anyone else was likely to get cursed a few steps into the room if they tried it. Even Rianae been caught once. No professors had tried, but Rahkesh was pretty sure that any of them wouldn't have much trouble getting past him. No one else had managed it in a few weeks. But Daray always turned up on the couch when Rahkesh was sure no one had entered the room. Always on the couch, in the same position, like he owned it. Rahkesh had hit him once to make sure it wasn't an illusion.

He'd then tried setting up more lights so that there were fewer shadows in the room to sneak about in. But all that had changed was that Daray had stopped always wearing black when he turned up on the couch. Proving that he _had _been using the shadows to hide like only a vampire could, but had figured out some new way in.

Not only that, but if it wasn't Daray on the couch, then it was that vampire bat of his. The little beast was draped over the top of the couch now, on its stomach, a most un-bat-like position. The dratted beast and its owner seemed to be on the same wavelength regarding Rahkesh's couch. It used to be that either the bat or the vampire would show up, until Rahkesh had insisted on seeing them in the same room and had used a magical signature sensor to make sure the bat wasn't in fact Daray's twin in disguise.

Daray had laughed himself silly at that. Rahkesh thought it was a reasonable suspicion. They acted alike and Daray often wore black leather of a sort that looked a lot like his pets skin. The bat even grinned like Daray; Rahkesh hadn't known bats _could_ grin. Now they both turned up, whenever Rahkesh wasn't paying attention. How they knew exactly when he would be concentration on his homework or practicing wandless magic he had no idea, but they always knew.

Rahkesh leveled a scowl at his smug friend. Knowing it wouldn't do any good but annoyed all the same, one of these days he _was _going to catch the vampire.

"You know, someday I'm going to put trip wires in front of that couch. And wouldn't that just be a laugh, if you broke your nose trying to sneak past me." He said. Daray did not look the least bit concerned.

"Trip wires are called _trip wires_ for a reason. They don't make you fall over, just trip." Daray said, not even bothering to open his eyes at the threat.

"All right then, electric trip wires. A couple thousand volts, just enough to make you jump and drop dead." Rahkesh said, signing his name on the essay. Now Daray's eyes opened and narrowed, he looked at Rahkesh for a moment as if wondering at his sanity.

"First it was Silas in an electric net, then the shocks you installed in the door, then the tasers - I know they're hidden in this room _somewhere_, and now electric trip wires. British wizards do not have a death penalty. So way are you so into electrocuting people?"

"It's fun." Rahkesh said, not really knowing the answer. "Why are you here anyway? Didn't you have a duel with what's his name – Saul?" Daray rolled his eyes skyward.

"I know you've been preoccupied with switching classes but really, Rahkesh, it's eight p.m., that duel was two and half hours ago." Daray said. Rahkesh checked his watch, oops. He'd eaten in his room that evening, working on this project, and completely lost track of time. The project was due the next day and he'd been delayed the day before with a tricky potion that had taken several hours longer than he'd thought it would.

"You won?" He asked, the vampire's head shot up from resting on the arm of the couch to glare. "Never mind, of course you won. What was the prize again?" Daray rarely fought without stating some sort of prize for the winner. The vampire grinned smugly like a happy cat, there should have been feathers.

"Him." Rahkesh shook his head; of course it would be something like that. Daray and Saul did not get along. Something simpler would have been too mild.

"Good blood?"

"I wasn't referring to his _blood_." Daray purred in reply. "Though I got his blood too." The vampire added, and frowned. "And neither was very good." Rahkesh shook his head; he never understood the vampire philosophy that life was all about sex and blood. Saul must have been very confident of his fighting abilities if he'd agreed to a bet like that. More likely Daray, being much more clever than Saul, had argued the vampire into such a corner that he couldn't say no without appearing a coward and couldn't say yes without appearing stupid. If given a choice like that Saul would have to take stupidity rather than cowardice. He could stand to appear an idiot; loss of face due to cowardice was unacceptable.

Well, Saul wouldn't be jeering about Rahkesh switching classes anytime soon.

"You know you could have claimed the prize was another duel with the winner of the first duel's choice of weapon. You know he can't duel worth shit with silent magic. You could have hung him from the dinning hall ceiling and repeatedly electrocuted him so he'd flop around and amuse everyone." Rahkesh suggested, he didn't like Saul either but the arrogant nasty vampire had never challenged him, yet. Saul was still getting over his first fight with Rahkesh outside the entrance to Akren valley.

"Again I ask, what _is _it with you and electrocuting people?" Daray said, Rahkesh shrugged again.

"It makes them cry?" He offered weakly, and immediately regretted saying it when the vampire snorted and broke out into a delighted toothy grin.

"I knew you were a hidden sadist. Next time the brat pisses you off you can do that to him. Maybe if he gets humiliated enough he'll stop being such an ass. Everyone knows what our bet was and everyone knows he lost, the duel only took five minutes you know, and about a third of the school was there in the gym, so I'd be surprised if he shows his face at all for the next week." Daray stated.

Rahkesh had to laugh, Daray didn't do anything half way and if he was going to beat Saul then the larger the audience the better. Especially if it was a vampire audience, there was a sort of wordless communication and understanding there that Rahkesh couldn't quite get. And everyone hated Saul, his superior attitude, which was completely unjustified, made even the other vampires hate him. Even the vampires who thought they were better than humans hated him, because Saul had no real abilities that counted at Akren. Sure he was much more powerful than the vast majority of Rahkesh's classmates at Hogwarts, but only with spoken incantations and a wand, which amounted to nothing here, yet expected to be treated like he was something special.

Sygra slid down from the shelf above his desk and coiled herself on top of his homework. A sure signal he'd been working too long. And why hadn't Sygra noticed the vampire coming in?

_I was asleep. I usually do notice, it amuses me that you do not._ The snake replied to his unspoken question. They really did think alike. She always knew what he was going to ask. His friends knew about the snake, but they didn't know he could speak parseltongue. No one needed to know that. There was too much chance of someone making a connection between a certain missing parseltongue that the British Ministry of Magic was going crazy over, and Rahkesh Asmodaeus newly arrived at Akren from that same country.

"Perhaps I'll just leave Sygra on the couch." Rahkesh wondered aloud, "she can bite you _and_ that bat when you sit down. And wouldn't _that_ be funny."

"Getting bit on the ass by a venomous snake? That would _not_ be amusing." Daray said. "If that snake bites me I'll send Satan to bite you."

"All I'd need would be a good lumos spell, he hates light."

"Whatever. Keep the snake in her cage. It isn't funny."

"Oh I think it would be. It's not like it could kill you, you're already dead. And I can just imagine you screeching like a little girl." Rahkesh said, deliberately provoking the vampire.

"I do not screech. Ever." The vampire proclaimed indignantly.

"Shriek then. Snake bites hurt." Rahkesh snickered. Picking up Sygra and letting her wrap herself over his arm and shoulder.

"You _are_ a sadist. Ever thought about becoming a vampire? That type of nastiness ought to reserved for our kind." Daray said, Rahkesh just rolled his eyes. If nastiness was a sign of being a vampire Severus Snape would be ruling the vampires.

"You vampires take yourselves much too seriously. It isn't healthy."

"Snakes are more our forte than that of humans."

"No they aren't." Rahkesh disagreed; the vampire had no idea what he was talking about. Neither Voldemort nor Rahkesh was a vampire. "You haven't the slightest clue what you are talking about. Animals do not belong to any of the humanoid species. Snakes are not at all dark, and neither are vampires. Really you have no claim to them. Sygra is my pet so if I ask her to wait on the couch to bite you she will."

"I'll just check the couch next time." Rahkesh noted the vague note of worry in the vampire's voice.

"Won't work." He smirked evilly at the bat and vampire sprawled out on his couch. "I'll get you my pretty, and your little bat too." He said, in a high screechy voice. Daray started laughing.

Rahkesh put Sygra in her cage and glanced down into the mouse burrow on the bottom level. The original two mice had bred, and Sygra had taken to eating the little ones. She thought half grown mice tasted better. Rahkesh had not been aware snakes had taste buds. There was a new litter there, three or four this time.

_Delicious_ Sygra said, peering down from an upper level at the mice. The adults, as always, went into spasms of fear at the sight of a snake.

"That snake is the truly sadistic one. Torturing those poor mice." Daray said, joining him to watch the snake terrorize the mice.

"It _is_ just a little cruel. And rather amusing." Rahkesh said, closing the top of the cage. "She likes having her choice of live food. Once winter is over I've made her a larger cage to go out on the balcony. There's room in there for the mice to feed themselves on the plants. I'm thinking about getting a few shrews or moles as well as the mice." The ground level of that cage was nearly six square feet.

"Are you coming with us to the hot springs tonight?" Daray asked. Rahkesh remembered that it was Saturday and their schedule meant that they had no classes until noon the next day. Typically that meant that the dozen or so students with that schedule would go swimming late at night in the hot springs. It was November, and there was two feet of snow on the ground. And the older students said it was a mild winter so far. Akren, being at such a high altitude, and being separated from the world, had weather generally unlike what the part of the muggle world it had been taken from had.

But even in the coldest months the students frequently went to the hot springs, despite there being perfectly acceptable hot tubs and a heated pool under the school. The springs were fun in winter, with everything white. The actual hot springs were too hot to swim in, but where the water hit the river, or one of the small streams flowing out of the mountains, it was just cool enough to swim in. There were dozens of such spots, and even during snowstorms the students would go there to swim and hangout, and the smaller spots were used by couples wanting some privacy away from the school. Rahkesh was looking forward to the annual party that took place in the hot springs when the first blizzard hit. It was a long-standing tradition to go for a soak in the hot springs during the first real blizzard.

"Like always, why?"

"A few of the older students are coming, and so are a few of our teachers. Apparently there're some hot springs we haven't found yet that roll down the rocks like a waterslide. They invited a few of us to come with them. Not all of us, you, me, Silas, Ally, and two others I don't know, Rianae I think." Daray explained.

"When and where are we meeting them? I'm guessing that they don't want all the other first year students to know we're going."

"It's invitation only. In the stables, at eleven, we're going on horseback. Ever ridden a Fire Horse before?"

"No. Won't they burn us?"

"Well sure, if you kick them or yank on their tails. They're okay really, a bit like hippogriffs, they decide what they're doing and pushing them around doesn't work."

Rahkesh set his papers aside in a neat stack. Potions on top, then bloodmagic, then transfiguration, the order he had the classes in.

"Sounds fun, I'll be there." He turned to look behind him, Daray was gone. He must be really slaking off; the vampire had gotten into the room and managed to leave without him noticing either. Usually he at least caught him on the way out.

_Sygra. Can you please tell me how on earth he manages to get in here?_

_No. I don't know how he does it. And if I did I wouldn't tell you. It is amusing. Try the trip wires. I should like to see that scrawny little bat get shocked. _

_I might. You'll have to look out for the trip wires too._

_I'm too smart to get caught, and I can go under them. You could just attach those electric whips things to the couch. _

_The tasers? Maybe. I'd be worried about killing the bat. Or having someone else sit down before I could disable them. _

_Shocking the other blood drinker would be amusing too._ Sygra didn't know how to say vampire yet, snakes just called them blood drinkers.

_True, perhaps I will. And I'll install a camera._

_A what?_

_A device to capture images. Like a painting only it records what it sees. _

_Do that._ The magical cobra hissed. _You can use it as blackmail_. She really was a bit vindictive. And she enjoyed getting the better of people. Sygra worked herself partially into the sand on the top layer of her cage and went to sleep. Her tongue flicking out now and then. Rahkesh went to find his swim trunks and a book to read in the hot springs.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Rahkesh made his way to the stables with Ally and Rianae. They avoided other students, not really wanting everyone to know that they had been chosen to go with the older students and teachers.

The stables were lit by magical crystals and small crystal bowls filled with water and luminescent algae. They gave off pale blue and pale green glows that shimmered, water-like, across the walls and ceilings. It was warm inside, the stables enchanted to stay at a temperature the inhabitants preferred. The windows in each stall were open, showing the starry black sky.

Besides the Hell's Steeds there were also a few Pegasi, a half-dozen thestrals, and three hippogriffs that had been born very late in the year and weren't ready to join the herd yet. There was also a white eagle, two acromatula, and one Baku.

"The Fire Horses are always ridden bareback. They tolerate the harnesses for the carriages and sleighs, but they don't like saddles or bridals." Rianae said as she opened one stall and led the flaming horse outside.

"Does the cold bother them? I wouldn't think it could, seeing as how they're always on fire." Rahkesh asked.

"No it doesn't, not until it gets a lot colder than this." Professor Marluck and his wife, professor Kiara Marluck, were coming with them. Apart from himself, Rianae, Ally, Silas, and Daray there was one other first year student. A half-veela who said his name was Erik. The others were all older students and teachers. The group was twenty-five in all. They were all wearing long pants and robes for the ride to the hot springs. There was a light wind blowing the snow about. The full moon was up.

All werewolf students were given wolfsbane potion; the potions classes brewed it regularly. Outside there were nearly twenty werewolves about in the valley while ten or a dozen more had stayed in their rooms while they transformed. There was also one goblin who'd been bitten by a werewolf, the only goblin to ever survive such an attack to become a gob-wolf. The smaller scruffy wolf always seemed a little out of place amongst the other sleek animals.

Aside from a hippogriff and a thestral Rahkesh had never ridden any sort of equine. And he decided he liked Fire Horses better than the other two. His was a massive black animal who pranced as Rahkesh led him out into the cold night air. Fire Horses were the chosen steeds of Akren because they didn't shy away from any of the species of students at the school. Thestrals were invisible to many of the newer students and Pegasi were notorious for the fact that they liked goblins and veela just fine, but would never let either species ride them. Hippogriffs tended to get too aggressive around vampires.

The group raced across the snowy ground, the older students and teachers taking the lead. Soon they had left the pasture and were dodging among the trees and low hills. They crossed one of the bridges over the river and went down the other side of the valley. A few of the werewolves came out and ran along beside them until the Fire Horses kicked at them in annoyance, then they backed off and went to chase each other through the snow. They took a hidden trail up the side of the valley. Here, a few hundred feet above the valley floor, there was an indentation into the mountainside and a massive raised meadow, ringed by trees, with a slow-moving stream winding through it. Up here was the hidden hot spring.

They left the horses in the trees, untied. The animals knew to stay close by and to come when called. There was a wide pool in the ground, shallow around the edges and deep in the middle. The water flowed down the mountainside from a few hundred feet up the ravine, where a hot spring and a cold mountain brook joined. Huge plumes of steam rose from that boiling water. Even where it poured into the pool it was still hot enough, and the air cold enough, that fog and mist billowed around them, making it hard to see or hear well. Once in the mist everyone appeared as ghostly shapes and it was hard to tell what was a person and what was a tree.

The ravine had been worn smooth inside by the water and was covered with a thin layer of magical algae. The same sort used in the stables for light. The water in the bowls in the stables was magically enhanced. Here the algae were not nearly so bright. Here the algae glowed under the running water, providing a dim source of light. Between that, the moonlight glinting off the snow, and the aurora flaming overhead there was plenty of light to see by, but not too bright, as the mist tended to keep everything dulled.

A few of the older students began the climb up the ravine beside the water. At the top they slid back down, splashing into the water. The water droplets sparkled in the moonlight like crystals. With all the fog in the air you couldn't see the top, or hear them up there, they just came sliding down out of the water vapor into the pool. Some of the others climbed in and floated down the deep slow moving stream than ran out of the pool. One of them on a raft reading a book.

"What about the falls?" Rahkesh asked Professor Marluck, nodding to where the stream poured over a cliff off the meadows.

"It gets really shallow in the pool just before those falls. And given how much that stream winds about it is over a mile long. But you do have to watch out for elk or other creatures in the water. There's so much mist that one time I went right past a grizzly without noticing it until I was past her."

Rahkesh tried the slide a few times, and then found a spot on the opposite side of the pool where he could read the book he'd brought. Professor Marluck (the female one) had brought a large raft and had anchored it on one side of the pool. The air was so thick with water vapor that he couldn't see more than three or four meters, and occasionally people swimming laps would appear, giving him a start. It was very peaceful and the water felt good after the exhausting fighting class.

"Rahkesh? That you?" Someone called softly. Rahkesh looked up in time to see Silas swimming towards him across the deepest part of the pool. His panther was swimming beside him, its small furry black head just visible above the water, long tail trailing along behind. The black fur over the little panther's head had gotten wet and was sticking out in spikes everywhere.

"I thought cats didn't like water."

"It's warmer than the air. And I've been training him to swim since I got him. He's used to the water." Indeed the small creature was paddling along without complaint and seemed to enjoy the water. The vampire sat down on the shallow clay ledge and picked up the panther. "That wasn't so bad was it Nuri?"

"Where did you get him?" Rahkesh asked, something he'd wanted to know ever since he'd met the vampire and his unusual pet.

"I got him in Brazil, we were living there for a few years before coming to Akren. There are two magical schools in the country and we were going to the more rigorous one. Some of the things we learned about were the native plants, of the rainforest you know, there are some very powerful ones. And a huge variety of magical creatures. We were on a class trip to see one of the cloud cities, high up in the Andes Mountains. We were going to see some of their magics. We saw Nuri's mother get killed by poachers but I got Nuri away from them, they were muggles." Silas explained, "this was all just before we left that school. Daray got his bat in Australia when we were ten. He wouldn't tell our parents how or where but I think it was born in captivity with an owner Daray accidentally killed." Rahkesh decided that he didn't need to know about _that_.

"Why were you in Brazil? You travel an awful lot."

"We're cousins. My parents were killed in a fight with another vampire over their city; they were the masters of Sydney – Australia. I escaped and my uncle, Daray's father, found me. His parents are an unusual pair. You know the vampire custom of the most powerful vampires ruling over a city or small country, and killing off any other vampires that try to get in?" When Rahkesh nodded that yes he did know about that Silas continued. "His parents are easily powerful enough to take any city they wished. Instead they work as assassins. There are an awful lot of young vampires with no real power, just blood drinkers. They have a tendency to create an awful lot of new vampires. Daray's parents, the whole family actually, are the ones who get called in when someone notices that there are way too many vampires in a certain area. They hunt down the original creator and all of their children. It's the family business. The other vampires allow them into any city they wish to live in without complaint because someone has to kill off those rogues, and if his family wasn't doing it the city masters would have to. His grandmother raised us, she's a real ancient, a few hundred years younger than Namach, and she thinks the best way to raise children is to travel to interesting places every few years." Silas explained.

Rahkesh nodded his understanding, with a twinge of envy. Silas was an orphan just like himself, but a far more fortunate one. He had heard occasional whisperings of the Ateres assassins, the family his two vampire friends belonged to, but he had dismissed what he heard as gossip. Apparently some of it had been accurate. He tried to imagine what it would be like to grow up moving all over the world, with an entire family around you all the time and cousin your own age who you _liked_…for all that they were vampires Silas and Daray seemed to have had an amazing life so far.

Silas was playing with Nuri, drawing a feather around in the water with the little panther chasing after it, splashing along the shallow ledges then leaping into the deeper water. For cat he was awfully comfortable in the water.

Rahkesh went back to his book. He had made sure to study the cultures of all the beings he was likely to encounter at Akren before coming. This one was an overview of vampires written by a Canadian witch whose cousin had been turned at birth to avoid a lethal genetic disorder. As such it was likely to be a fairly accurate and well written account of vampire society. Though Rahkesh wouldn't know how accurate it was until he started to compare it too what his vampire friends told him.

He understood that a very high percentage of the vampire students wouldn't live to see thirty. Important family or not older vampires didn't care at all; they would kill any younger vampire they found. The vampires who ruled the major cities always permitted a fairly large number of vampire-run businesses. But there were a lot of vampires, and the city masters were very strict about how many vampires were allowed.

This was necessary so as not to overfeed on the mortal population. Only so many vampires could be in one place or the number of prey wasn't enough. Vampires did not always kill when feeding, but all the same they would run out of prey with too many of them around. The competition to either run one of the few permitted businesses, or to be allowed to live, employed in the muggle or wizarding world, in any city, or for a spot amongst the followers the city masters kept around, was very fierce. And often deadly. The city masters chose only the most reliable, the most cunning, the most powerful (so long as they weren't competition), and the most intelligent. There was no place for anyone else. Those extra vampires would search all over the world, getting chased out of one city after another with no place to call home. Eventually they would be killed, or kill themselves.

That was the second problem. The city masters were, usually but not always, the oldest, and they knew how to tell which vampires would be around for a long time. Many vampires didn't have the strength to live for centuries and would either go insane or kill themselves. Suicide or being killed off by the rulers of the vampire world would be the fate of about a fourth of the vampires currently in schooling at Akren.

The students at Akren had a huge advantage. They had all been turned into vampires as babies. Turned before the age of two a child would age as a mortal for a few decades, and stop aging sometime between twenty and thirty. Any human turned after the age of two would simply become a vampire, un-aging, an immortal child. People turned as babies had families, usually families that had an established place in the world and wanted to raise children…or if they were unlucky they had creators, which were the same thing as parents except they wanted to raise followers rather than be real parents. Either way those turned so young were wanted, and they had someone looking after them.

Those that were turned when they were adults didn't have that benefit. They didn't grow up as vampires and so they had a higher suicide rate. Usually because they realized only after being turned that they couldn't handle the new culture. Even if they were married to someone who had been a vampire from birth they rarely acquired the ability to think and live like a vampire, despite acquiring the full vampiric instincts. The disconnect between vampiric instinct and the culture the human had been raised in was often deadly.

More common were adults who were turned into vampires because they had a vampire lover or because some vampire wanted loyal followers. These also often didn't end well, for the same reasons.

A rare few humans that were turned did spectacularly well, often better than the vampires who created them. But for almost all adults who were turned into vampires either they died trying to learn how to live, or they turned out to be the type that had been obsessed with vampires while still mortal, and now went about creating many more vampires, a sure way to get yourself hunted down and killed.

Rahkesh knew that his two friends, and Rianae – though he wasn't sure if he could call her a friend – would be fine. But he was very much aware of the competition even amongst the youngest students. Vampire society worked a bit like a wolf pack, and status competition began at a very young age. Dominance over weaker vampires was essential to survival. The pecking order was laid out early on and very rarely changed.

One of the few things that could change it was blood. For vampires blood was power. If a weaker vampire drank the blood of a more powerful vampire their powers would increase. They would also wind up with a blood connection to the one who had given them that powerful blood that allowed the more powerful vampire to overpower the weaker with only a thought.

This was how the most powerful vampires kept control over their cities. They chose exceptional vampires, who were intelligent, cunning, but through no fault of their own fairly weak. They would give these vampires a little of their blood to strengthen them and in turn be assured that those vampires could never challenge them unless they first gained the blood of an even more powerful vampire. It was a complicated process but being a school with so many vampires Rahkesh saw it at its best. The stronger vampires had a tendency to pick on the weaker ones. Usually by drinking the weaker vampire's blood. This heightened the powers of the already more powerful students as they acquired whatever unique vampiric abilities the weaker vampire may have. Drinking the blood of those weaker than yourself was a way to make yourself even more powerful, especially if you killed them. Since there was no killing allowed at Akren the vampire students competed to become the most powerful before they left Akren's safety. The most powerful vampires fought among themselves, taking the blood of the weaker students to help overpower each other. Trying to find out which ones might survive to become competition.

Saul certainly would not. That was a fact he could bet real money on. There was no killing allowed within Akren. But Saul had gotten on the wrong side of everybody and if some mortal students didn't kill him went he left for winter or summer break then a vampire student would. There were even a few whispers that Tristan Namach intended to kill Saul himself. The ancient Roman vampire was responsible for keeping the vampire students under control, and the city masters relied upon him for advice about any particularly exceptional students. They also relied upon him to get rid of vampires like Saul before they got out of school and could become a real problem.

According to Rianae's assessment Saul was just the sort to turn a whole bunch of muggles into vampires as his followers and start trouble. It would not surprise anyone who understood the vampires if Saul did not even make it home for winter break. The chances of him running into Namach on the way home were very high. There was even a small betting pool amongst the more aware mortal students. Of when Saul would die and who would kill him.

Though who was actually going to ask what had happened when Saul did eventually die was a good question. Rahkesh had a disturbing feeling that they would ask him to find out. Since it would likely be Namach who "removed" the obnoxious vampire, and Rahkesh was already Namach's favorite student amongst the mortals. Rahkesh had bet a few galleons that Saul would live past winter break and then die over the summer break. If Daray – who took Saul's existence as a personal insult – couldn't find a way to make him commit suicide before then.

Suddenly water splashed all over his book, Rahkesh looked up in time to see a dark furry creature plow through the water and vanish. Seconds later Nuri bobbed to the surface and began swimming in circles looking for something. Silas was wiggling his toes just above the water's surface, his panther cub trying frantically to catch his toes. Rahkesh concentrated on his book, attempting to dry it wandlessly. He was trying to use wandless magic whenever possible. Slowly the water began to vanish. Then Nuri, startled by something, leaped out of the water and shook himself soaking Rahkesh's book again. The cub whirled around and gave a raspy sort of meow, staring out across the water.

A few seconds later Daray came up from underwater a few feet away.

"Did he sense me coming?" He asked nodding at Nuri, who had calmed down and was staring intently at Silas toes, which were sticking out above the water.

"Yes. He still hasn't learned to identify what he senses. Too young still I guess." Silas replied.

Nuri pounced.

"Ow! Nuri! That hurt!" Silas yelped as the cub's claws raked his foot.

"You were trying to get him to attack your foot, why are you surprised?" Rahkesh asked, wandlessly removing the water from his book for a third time. "Where have you been?" He asked Daray.

"The slide, it's fun. And then looking for you two. You could get lost in this mist stuff; can't see more than three meters. Good thing the pool's not too big. Have you seen the moonbows yet?"

"The what?" Rahkesh asked.

"The moonbows. Same as a rainbow only with moonlight." The darker vampire replied, treading water a few feet away, Ally followed him out of the mist.

"Never heard of them." Rahkesh said.

"Light strikes water vapor, creates big colorful bow shape." Ally explained. "The moonlight acts the same way the sunlight does. Look up towards where the slide is." Rahkesh listened for the sound of running water, and finally identified where the slide was. Looking up in that direction he was shocked to see a pale colored moonbow, several of them. They had the same colors as a rainbow, only paler with more of the cool colors. The shimmered, stabilized in the mists, and then shimmered again as the breeze blew the mists about.

"Oh, that's nice." It was really pretty, then another roll of mist moved in and he couldn't see it anymore.

"Look up." Silas said suddenly. They all looked up, even Nuri. The aurora was turning green, a curling mass of green light above the valley.

"Very cool. Wish I had a camera." Ally said. "Where did Rahkesh go?"

Rahkesh had left the minute he'd seen the aurora turning green. There was a type of magical flower that only bloomed under a green aurora. He had been watching the aurora all night. Different colors brought out different plants and creatures. And it was for this, as much as for the hot springs, that most of the teachers and older students had come. It was a full moon, the first snow had just fallen but the second one hadn't come yet. Perfect conditions for gathering plants at their most powerful. In the valley such plants would not grow, the magical creatures living in the valley would eat them. But here he had seen a ring of stones around the meadow on the way in. Warding stones that kept out all magical creatures except those accompanying humans.

Putting on his boots he trudged through the snow to look on some of the higher mounds of grass out in the meadow. He heard someone behind him call his name but he didn't answer and the mist ate up the sound. A few second later he saw other people moving about, probably also looking for plants. The herbology teachers were both out here; they hadn't even been to the water yet.

What he was looking for was one of the rarest types of plants in the world. It could be found anywhere at an altitude of six to eight thousand feet where there was a lot of magic, the aurora borealis, and the correct minerals present with no predators to eat them, since no non-magic creature could see or touch them. The hot springs brought the correct minerals into the soil so it seemed like a meadow next to a hot spring where magical creatures couldn't go would be a good place to look. The little plants could be found only during the winter and they were at their most powerful on the full moon not too long after the first snow.

He had to dig into the snow a bit but eventually Rahkesh found what he was looking for. A few small plants with tiny blood red flowers on black stems with bright green leaves, which had curled into tight balls from the cold. This was the Animus bacca plant. The name meant, literally, soul pearl.

Daray and Ally caught up to him as Rahkesh enlarged the knife he'd brought with him and cut off a handful of the flowers and few of the leaves. He then dug into the ground at the plants base. Here in the soil were things that looked like pearls attached to the roots. Rahkesh removed a few of those as well. He then carefully dug up one of the plants he hadn't removed the flowers from and placed it into a conjured flowerpot.

"Animus bacca, I hadn't even thought of those." Daray said, he had dug up another of the plants for himself and placed it in a box he had transfigured from a pebble.

"What are they?" Ally asked.

"Very, very, rare plants. One of the ten most powerful plant species. They're used in potion making – mostly poisons, healing, necromancy, soul magic, and blood magic." Rahkesh explained. He placed a few charms on the pot and started back towards the pool. "There can't be more than a few hundred of these plants in the entire valley. Most of them right here. Magical herbivores, of all species, love them. Even magical animals that usually eat meat will get these if they can." He placed the pot in some tall grasses near the water and climbed back in.

"Found what you were looking for?" Silas asked.

"Yes. Animus bacca." Daray told him, Silas's eyes went wide.

"Wow. Keeping a few of them?"

"Yeah. I can grow them out on my balcony." Rahkesh said. "But I'll need to get water from this hot spring fairly often."

"Just get a pot that's bigger inside than outside, one of those could hold enough for months." Ally suggested. The aurora changed again, becoming more blue than green. Looking at his plant Rahkesh saw that the flowers were starting to close. The plant was self-pollinating and released seeds from the flowers whenever it could bloom. They were invisible and could not be felt. Like the plant itself was invisible and untouchable to non-magic creatures. That was what made it so hard to breed the plants in captivity.

Clouds rolled in, dimming the moonlight. The two herbology teachers finally came to the water. Unable to find most of the plants they were looking for without the moon. The mist around them turned blue with the changing aurora. They could hear splashing sounds, but the sound seemed distant with the blanket of mist.

Nuri the panther cub tired of chasing Silas toes and climbed out of the water, dried off, and curled up in a fluffy heated basket Silas had brought. Ally sat down near Silas and Rahkesh, and began practicing silent freezing and thawing charms on a cup full of water. Daray lay down on a shallower section of the clay ledge on the other side, his whole body covered by the water except his head.

"Don't fall asleep there. You'll fall in." Silas warned. "Drowning isn't fun, even for a vampire, inhaling water hurts."

"You're the one who fell asleep while surfing and got overturned by a shark." Daray retorted, Silas turned pink.

"You gave me the sleeping drought."

Daray didn't dispute that. The group lapsed into silence as they watched the mists shift about, it was almost hypnotic.

The martial arts professor, a half veela who taught the most advanced students, swam silently out of the mists, followed a few seconds later by a few of the older students. The group settled onto the clay ledge that ringed the pool a few feet away.

"Like it here?" The martial arts professor, whose name Rahkesh thought was Ahmad asked.

"Yes, it's better than the other pools." Rahkesh replied.

"Hm, not so many students roughhousing about in the water splashing everyone." he said, referring to the often-overcrowded pools closer to the school. "What is that?" He asked, nodding to the small black furry kitten curled up the fluffy basket.

"My panther." Silas replied, "he's very young still."

"Headmistress's snow leopard isn't going to like that." Warned one of the older students, a female vampire who Rahkesh had heard had a reputation for picking on any vampire weaker than herself in a very nasty manner.

"That animal doesn't like having any other creatures in its territory. Do you remember what happened when Professor Namach's magical fill-neck got loose in the school?" A student who claimed to be a cross between a siren, a veela, and a human asked.

"That was great, all classes in that half of the school had to be cancelled because no one could stop them or get near them. That's no ordinary snow leopard Alefly's got. And of course Namach's giant magical frill-neck is a rather amazing creature, it's almost, what? Three hundred years old? Those two caused a whole bunch of minor earthquakes."

Silas looked at his sleeping panther. Nuri hadn't shown any sign of magical abilities yet. And probably never would, his wild parents had been perfectly normal creatures.

"That one got any interesting powers?" It was the female vampire from before.

"Not that I know of." Silas admitted, drawing a contemptuous sneer.

"What good is he then?" She asked

"Some of us like having pets just because they're good companions." Silas responded. "Of course I don't expect you to understand the fact that owning pets can be pleasant. What do you have again?" She sneered at him; Silas didn't return it, ignoring her. And thereby stopping any challenge she might have issued. Silas was probably not as powerful as she was, and in a vampire duel he would likely lose.

Silas was fairly powerful amongst the Akren vampire students, but there were plenty of them that were more powerful than he was. As a result he had to be cautious. Especially because it was hard to tell exactly what sort of beginning powers any vampire had until they stopped aging. Once they stopped physically aging power grew with age. Those that started out better off would always be a bit ahead of those their age who didn't start off with such power.

Daray was easily one of the most powerful students at Akren; being only at the beginning of his training he was still very vulnerable but any student with half a brain could tell that eventually he would surpass them, and remain ahead. All he needed was training, the magic was all there, and while drinking his blood might help another vampire out a bit it would do nothing once Daray was more fully trained. He was going to be dangerous one day, everyone could already tell that, and so he didn't have much to worry about besides the vampire teachers. There were plenty of vampires who were better fighters than Daray was; they had years more to practice. But he was inherently more powerful than they were so once he did reach their skill level it would be better if he didn't have any grudges.

As far as the teachers went, they had no qualms about taking the blood of their students. So long as that student didn't survive after leaving Akren, or didn't mind, then they were safe from revenge later. And of course no one was going to fight Namach if he wanted their blood, most of them would think it a compliment.

In fact Rahkesh was fairly sure that Namach drank the blood of every vampire student of Akren at least once, and the students in turn competed viciously for his attention. But he already was so much more powerful than any of the others that there was little point in his drinking their blood. No one challenged him and the ancients like himself all knew each other and were for the most part friends, he had no one to fight off and so didn't need the additional power.

Just as the female vampire was about to continue the argument, which would probably have led to a fight, all of the vampires stiffened as if sensing something. A few second later two forms materialized slowly out of the thick mists. Soon Professor Namach and Professor Havari Yetran, the wandless magic instructor, became fully visible.

At a stern look from Namach the female vampire moved away from Silas, and Silas over to Ally's other side, leaving a large space on the ledge for the ancient vampire. Namach glared after the retreating female, the reason students were allowed to this hot spring, which was usually reserved for the teachers, was because those allowed to come were supposed to be the ones that could be trusted not to cause trouble. It only took a lingering glance at her throat for Namach to convince the younger vampire that she ought to make herself scare. She vanished quickly into the mist at the other side of the pool. Daray sat up to make room as well, but didn't move away as the two professors sat down. _He_ hadn't been getting into a fight after all and Namach was very fair.

"Can't chill out for an evening." Namach muttered to the other teacher as they sat down. Professor Yetran, who was part fae and had the ability to turn herself see-through, rather like a ghost, just shrugged. Now _that_ was an unusual combination and a weird ability.

"Atalia won't last." Yetran said softly. Rahkesh rather thought she was right. Atalia, if that was her name, was too power-hungry in a thoroughly disagreeable and nasty way. None of the older vampires were likely to trust her unless they had a strong enough blood connection to completely control her. And she wasn't pleasant at all, though she was certainly powerful enough.

"Tomorrow?" Ally asked Silas, nodding in the direction Atalia had gone. He turned to stare at her.

"Yes. You are very perceptive." Silas said. Rahkesh frowned, still confused.

"It isn't hard."

"What?" Rahkesh asked.

"I'll have to find a way to either beat her, and hopefully drink her blood. Or she'll take mine. We're almost equal right now, vampiric power wise anyway. And that can never last long unless the two are very good friends. Amongst vampires…amongst _young_ vampires…there are no equals. There are those lower than you and then there are the ones who you ought to obey if you want to live." Silas explained.

"What fun. Do kick her ass will you. I don't like her." Rahkesh said. "How could you tell?" He asked directing the question at Ally.

"It was fairly obvious. You just have to watch. It isn't hard to tell when one of the males is planning a challenge."

"That's a girl thing." They all turned to see Rianae treading water a few feet away. "Let me know how it goes. I'd like her blood too."

It occurred to Rahkesh that Rianae was more powerful than Silas, but never treated him like Atalia had. They even sparred on occasion without real hostility. They weren't in competition like all the other vampires were. Rianae wasn't in competition with anyone. She was a watcher, saw everything, outdid most, not obtrusively but quietly. She didn't threaten but she did attack, when she was good and ready, quickly, silently, and always won. She and Daray were of a kind, and the teachers, the vampire ones, listened to their opinions with more attention than they gave others, suggesting that those two had good chances of survival.

XXXX

Professor Havari Yetran was very, very, skilled at wandless magic. And she was very good at explaining how to do it. Rahkesh thought as he practiced opening and closing a door wordlessly.

"Focus on the movement, not what the movement is _called_. You're sitting there thinking that you want the door to open. Think about the movment as it swings, the movement you want the door to make." Professor Yetran was telling the students. A few doors were wobbling, but none were really moving. Rahkesh stopped and took a break. With wandless magic it was necessary to try everything several different ways. Each time you wanted to perform wandless magic the way you did it might be different. Doors might need just a thought, levitating might require thinking the incantation. With practice each new task would come more naturally and you would only need one try to find out what was needed for that task.

He waved his hand at the door, focusing on the movement. The door, which was not locked nor even fully closed, swung open smoothly.

"Very nice. You also used a hand movement for opening the drawer." Professor Yetran observed over his shoulder.

"Whatever works right?"

"Yes. Do you ever have to think the incantation?"

"I haven't found a case where that works yet. I try to separate spells from wandless magic. They're not identical. If you think of them the same way they get confused, they're not the same so trying to make them the same works against you." Rahkesh replied, Yetran beamed and moved away. Rahkesh looked at beginning trying to get it the door to close. This was so much better than thread magic. A week into the class and he was making amazing progress, and it was fun.

"Class over. I'll expect all of you to be working on this on your own." Professor Yetran said. They rarely had homework, just practice. If you didn't practice you'd never keep up, and it was up to each student to find the time to make the magic work correctly. For many this class took more time, outside of the classroom, than any other. Rahkesh found it a wonderful break.

Rianae, Ally, Silas, and Daray met him in the hallway and the five headed to lunch. The hallway from that part of the school to the main entranceway and dining room was still stained with blood, Silas smiled fondly at the stains as they passed.

Silas had done as he said he was going too. The day after their soak in the hot springs Ally and Rahkesh had been walking to the dining hall after a sparring match only to find vampire students fairly obviously blocking one of the hallways. Fortunately it was not the main one and they'd just gone around. Past the corner Ally had grabbed him and dragged him back into a secret passageway.

"Why are we here?" Rahkesh ha asked. Ally shushed him and began moving along the secret passageway. Akren was filled with these; the builders had been very creative, a lot like Fred and George. Further down Ally paused and cast a silent lumos spell.

"I discovered this a few days ago." She whispered, reaching up she put her knife into a crack in the low ceiling, and trap door dropped down, with a ladder inside. They climbed up and pulled it shut behind them.

"We're over that hallway they were guarding." Rahkesh stated, Ally nodded. Rahkesh remembered that the hallway had paintings on the ceiling. They were above those, Ally pointed to the floor. There were several strings attached to various pieces of stone. Ally lifted one string and pulled out a tiny piece of their floor, and the hallway ceiling. Looking down they could see what it was the vampires had been keeping people out for.

There was blood splashed across the walls and scorch marks from magic. The red liquid ran down the wall, drying into droplets and pooling at the base. The floor gleamed red in the torchlight. They had obviously just missed the end of the battle as the two vampires were currently removing all traces of their magical signature from the site. Though they removed the magical signature the blood was still on the walls and floor.

"Leave it." One of them snapped when the other went to clean it away. Rahkesh recognized Silas voice. Then the other must be Atalia. Both vampires looked worse for wear, the bite marks on the visible side of her neck were only partially healed, and both of their clothing was ripped and bloodstained. Their injuries were otherwise healed, as vampires had amazing healing abilities. The two above watched silently until the vampires were done. Silas turned toward the dining hall and Atalia hurried away in the other direction.

"Come on." Ally hissed, Rahkesh put the spy holes back and followed her back down the trap door and out of the secret passageway in time to meet Silas entering the dining hall. Rianae and Daray were waiting for them at a table and waved them over.

"Nice fight?" Daray asked, taking in Silas battered state. Silas didn't appear to notice, he was practically glowing.

"Oh yes. I've never taken the blood of a vampire almost as powerful as I am. It's nice." He said, his eyes had a slightly glazed look, almost as if he were drugged.

"There's quite a rush along with the blood of a vampire who is almost your equal or more powerful." Daray explained to the two mortals. "It's delicious, almost addictive. Right now vampires can sense the change occurring in his blood as it absorbs the added power. He'll be acting a little bit high for a while."

"And the extra energy will take awhile to work off, a fight companied by powerful blood with no loss of your own causes an excessive amount of energy and power. It might be a few days before he can sleep again." Rianae added. Silas was grinning like a loon, and not eating, or drinking any blood.

"Food would make him nauseous, and he doesn't need the blood." Daray continued, "we'll just have to see how much his vampiric magics are enhance by this, and if he suddenly manifests any abilities he didn't have before."

"You see why drinking the blood of other vampires is so addictive," Rianae said. "The more powerful they are the better." Rahkesh and Ally watched with great amusement as Silas walked back to his rooms whistling.

That had been Sunday, it was Thursday evening and he was still unusually cheerful. No one had removed the blood from the hallway. Apparently Silas was supposed to do that, whenever he got around to it. The vampires had settled down a bit, right after the fight they'd been meeting and chattering constantly. But Silas had been careful to let everyone know that he didn't fight unless given a really good reason to. Realizing that he had no wish to challenge them the vampires a little higher of the ladder from him had calmed down. At the same time his not acting hugely superior relaxed the lower vampires. Daray and Rianae treated the whole thing with amused indifference.

"It doesn't really matter, he's still my cousin." Daray said simply when Rahkesh asked. He had finished brewing a potion in his rooms only to find Daray, his bat, and Rianae in his room. Daray and Stan sprawled on the couch as usual, Rianae in one of the armchairs. And he hadn't noticed any of them. After Rahkesh got over his annoyance at them all just appearing (the vampires waited in smug amusement while he fumed) he'd started asking about why everyone was acting the way they were.

"Doesn't taking another's blood create personality shifts?" Rahkesh asked.

"Not always. Very rarely actually. The thing to be wary of is those that get too focused on blood, obsessed with it. My parents have to get rid of some of those; they say they're really creepy. Don't care about anything but killing other vampires. Do it in daylight in the middle of a muggle shopping mall. It can get bad when so many people see us feeding like that. It's usually blamed on cults and drugs of course." Daray said.

"Silas will be fine, but I don't think he's ever tried the blood of a vampire almost as powerful as himself before. Atalia's gone right back to her usual habits you know." Rianae said. "Nothing will change her."

"In some ways she's a better at being a vampire than we are." Daray added, he and Rianae laughed. "She follows the rhetoric, only blood matters. It's very amusing because that is almost true, but far enough away from the truth that she could get in trouble outside of Akren."

"And you two are so much more worldly?" Rahkesh asked skeptically.

"Yep." Rianae said, then they both laughed again. Rahkesh didn't ask what was so funny. He'd given up on understanding vampires.

XXXXX

Winter break was timed to coincide with New Years. Three weeks. Rahkesh didn't have any plans, but he was going home for at least a week. Part of this was that he intended to become a supplier of rare potions ingredients. There were several shops he was going to try. Mostly not in Europe, mostly Canada and the United States, but there was shop in Knockturn Alley that he thought might be a good place.

He had some unusual stuff. Basilisk parts he'd scavenged from the Chamber of Secrets during the month he'd spent living in real time in the Room of Requirement. A little bit of fur from the Yeck he'd tackled on the way to Akren. It was unusual and fairly powerful in only a few potions. A very potion-specific ingredient. Hairs from the tail of a Fire Horse were also rare and hard to get. They usually didn't allow anyone to get them and the hairs had to be cut right from the tail while still burning. Fire Horses didn't shed, they burned.

He'd also figured out a complex set of spells he could charm parchment with to send letters to people, such as potential buyers for some of the things he could provide. Untraceable, unreadable except for the person with the magical signature of the person being sent the letter. About as intercept-safe as it was possible to be. He would contact Fred and George first. He'd always liked them and trusted them.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Magic was singing through his veins, he felt like he was drowning in it. Rahkesh let himself drown, the pain from the knife was gone, the magic carrying him away from everything else. He felt himself changing, the magic altering him as the runes directed it. Examining the process taking place with his mind and magic Rahkesh could feel the changes occurring as the bloodmagic set in.

Rahkesh opened his eyes. He could feel the blood drying on his body; he was covered head to toe in it. Pain from the cuts set in, followed by the ache that came from kneeling on a hard stone floor for hours. The bright glow faded, leaving dimly glowing gold runes running across his skin. A moment later they faded and vanished. Blood seeped out from the cuts, they were healed a second later by a rush of magic that left Rahkesh feeling drained and exhausted. The runes drawn in blood across the floor stopped glowing, and finally started to dry.

Slowly, careful not to pass the inner circle of runes, Rahkesh unfolded his legs and stretched. Feeling blood start to flow to his feet again. Both his legs were asleep. He began to go through simple stretches designed to relax stiffened muscles and identify any injuries. The Bloodmagic should not have left any injuries, but if it had it was a sign that something had gone wrong. He searched for the sharp pain that would come from stretching an unhealed cut, but there was none.

Finally Rahkesh stood shakily and began to undo the runes on the floor. This had to be done with wandless magic. The runes engraved into the skin of his palms the first time he'd tried bloodmagic glowed and began to bleed. Rahkesh swept his palms over the half-dry blood runes on the floor, blurring them. Concentrating on removing their magics as he did. When the inner circle of runes was gone he stood and walked out, careful to not step directly on the other diagrams drawn in blood. The stone chamber was lit by a stained glass window in the ceiling and there was only one door. Rahkesh opened it and stepped out into the small chamber beyond. Closing the door he pressed his still bleeding hand to a handprint drawn on the wall. Water rushed into the room and dissolved away the blood.

The small chamber was maybe four meters long and two meters across. Along both walls were plain granite benches, the floor and ceiling solid stone. There were shelves down the wall beside the doors at the opposite end and next to one of these was a tall coat rack with elk antlers across the top. Rahkesh picked up the heavy fleece bathrobe he'd left on the elk antler rack before entering the chamber and put it on. He'd have to clean the blood off it later.

When doing bloodmagic most students left their clothes in the much nicer and more comfortable locker rooms just down the hall. There they could be kept in warded security; the bloodmagic professors had a very strict policy against harming a student in the locker rooms or on the short walk from the locker rooms to the bloodmagic chambers. The reason for this was that a person who had just finished a ritual might not be magically stable and could possible create some extremely powerful and probably lethal accidental magic when attacked. It just wasn't worth the risk to the entire school. The small chamber next to the bloodmagic chamber contained devices inside the walls to capture and store stray magic from a ritual gone wrong, therefore it was a bad place to keep anything. Most students just kept one robe handy for use moving between the locker rooms and the bloodmagic chambers.

Rahkesh wrapped his robe around himself and found the sandals he kept for after rituals, when his feet were often still a little achy, covered in dried blood, and he didn't want to wear shoes. Tristan Namach was waiting outside the door when Rahkesh left.

"That went well." The ancient vampire said, appearing quite pleased with his student's work.

"Well enough. You were watching?" One of the walls of the blood magic chamber was actually a one-way window.

"For a bit. It's six o'clock." The vampire told him. Rahkesh was surprised; he'd been in there for seven hours. "That went faster than I'd expected. Nicely done."

"Thanks. I don't think I've ever felt this exhausted." Rahkesh said, feeling a vague dizziness.

"I think you can complete the stamina runes in one more ritual. But I'd give it a few weeks before you start designing the next one. If you start designing it too soon the bloodmagic might not have finished setting in and you'll have to redesign it." Namach said, grabbing Rahkesh's elbow and steering him away from a torch bracket Rahkesh was about to walk into.

"Thanks." Rahkesh said, trying to clear the blood out of his eyes. Blood dripped onto the floor but he ignored it. The floor of the hallway they were walking on had apparently never been cleaned; bloody feet over the centuries had left it with a layer of dried blood. The whole wing devoted to bloodmagic stank of blood. "I left my clothes in the locker room."

"I had one of the others move them to the showers. You leave here smelling like that and there's a good chance one of the young vampires might attack you." Namach said, "the young ones these days…" he shook his head. Rahkesh tried not to laugh. Namach probably couldn't remember being that young.

There was a set of showers near the blood magic chambers and Rahkesh headed for those. Dried blood itched and he wanted to get clean. When he left he showers he found that Namach had left him a goblet full of a minor revival potion. Rahkesh drank it, making a mental note to thank the ancient, and went straight to bed, skipping the evening meal entirely. He was far to tired to spend any time in the dining hall, and falling asleep in the middle of dinner was not very dignified.

The next morning he called up his latest set of bloodmagic runes and felt a light tingle in his skin as the magic began to work. The runes glowed briefly and a wave of magic washed over him. When it had passed the runes faded and Rahkesh could feel a strange sort of endless energy. That too would fade a bit over the next few days but it was a sure sign that his second stage of stamina runes had set into his magic correctly.

In addition to the second stage stamina piece he'd also finished two parts of a set that would give him extraordinary night vision, when he turned those runes on. The great thing about blood magic was that it could be turned off and on, and that if in the middle of a fight he felt himself tiring he could call upon the stamina and strength runes, even if they were already working, to increase is energy even further. Though he'd pay for doing that afterward with extreme exhaustion. The night vision was a fairly simple bit of blood magic, three parts in total. Because the runes were mostly around the eyes and even on the eyelids, the inside and outside of them, it had to be done with such exacting care that it took six hours, despite being a fairly small piece of bloodmagic. Rahkesh had practiced drawing for weeks, hoping to force himself to develop an attention to detail good enough to handle the runes for night vision. With effort he'd managed to develop the exacting precision necessary and had completed two of the three stages of the night vision runes.

Namach had been absolutely delighted with Rahkesh's speedy progress. Rahkesh was very good and figuring out where to place runes and unlike most beginners he needed no instruction about what angle each cut should be made at. That came naturally enough that Rahkesh had thought that was completely obvious until Namach announced that the class would spend over a month learning how to tell how each cut should be made. He'd also thought if obvious that the knife couldn't leave the skin between carving certain sets of runes, but this too was something they would be studying. The problem was that the runes that had to be cut together without taking the knife out of the flesh weren't always in the same spot, in which case there had to be other runes connecting them. Some of those runes wouldn't even be part of the final piece, just extra material. They had to be carved in such a way that they didn't conflict with the bloodmagic being attempted, something else that Rahkesh found fairly easy to figure out. Namach said he'd rarely seen such a promising student of bloodmagic, he'd spent the last month testing Rahkesh's ability to design bloodmagic ritual and runes, with ever increasing delight as Rahkesh always picked out the smallest problems and corrected them. He'd decided to move Rahkesh ahead next year to a more advanced class, since Rahkesh was really only wasting time in the group he was currently with. If he continued at this rate Namach thought he might manage to get a mastery in bloodmagic by the age of twenty-two. Which would make him the fifth youngest master ever.

His vampire friends Silas and Daray had both finished their first pieces of bloodmagic. They each working on an eight stage set designed to allow them to spend more time in the sun without the horrible weakness that overcame most vampires after more that two or three days of direct sunlight. None of the vampires had told him at the time, but by the time they'd arrived at Akren Mountain School all of the vampire students had been starting to feel sick with an overdose of sunlight. The bloodmagic they were working on would get rid of the weakness, it would take another four piece set get rid of the sickness and a third four piece set to stop their skin from becoming badly burned. Sun block didn't work well on vampires. So far they had each done the first stage of each piece. Namach estimated that if Daray and Silas kept working at the runes like they were they might manage to complete all three sets with one year.

XXXXX

"Stupefy!" Erik the half-veela collapsed. Rahkesh ducked a second stunner and rolled behind the fallen bodies of his teammates. Leaping upright he thrust one hand forward, sending Rianae flying backwards. He'd lost his wand a few minutes earlier and had been fighting wandless ever since.

Ally, his only remaining teammate, was in the middle of a rough fistfight with a werewolf student. She didn't have her wand anymore either and her only chance to beat him was to prevent him from casting spells. He attacked, kicking and then punching when she dodged. Ally blocked and attacked back, smacking his wand away when he tried a stunning spell. He attacked again. Ally moved away from every attack, never quite where he expected her to be. Ally was very tall, very strong, and very aggressive. Liam was clearly having trouble keeping up with the force she put into her attack each time she saw the chance to get him. Finally she saw an opening and took it. Rahkesh saw her fist connect with Liam's face, then her elbow rammed into his solar plexus. The werewolf doubled over, tripped over his own foot and crashed into her as he collapsed, sending them both to the ground. As she fell Ally rotated with all the agility of a cat so that when Liam fell over her she rammed her knee into his groin. The werewolf toppled over her and rolled, snapping his wand about to point at her. Ally cast a wandless stunning spell at the same moment he cast a silent stunner. Both of them collapsed simultaneously.

Rahkesh ducked a close-range hex and leaped, his foot smashed into Daray's gut causing the vampire to stagger and nearly fall. Being a vampire he shook it off easily enough and then he and Rianae attacked together. Rahkesh was the last one left of his team of eight, Rianae and Daray were the last ones left of their team of fourteen.

They had begun the fight all with wands, and two very uneven teams, in a giant maze/obstacle course made of boulders and hills of sand ideal for slipping on. Plenty of cover to hide behind and dodge around. Now with the three students still standing all in the middle of the open area it would come down it stamina and skill. Rahkesh cast a wandless choking charm, and then remembered that vampires didn't _have_ to breathe when Rianae just ignored it. His next attempt, as he dodged away from a kick that might have broken his neck, was successful and threw her wand away over one of the walls. Daray had already lost his wand and now Rahkesh faced the two in a slightly fairer fight.

The two vampires closed in, knowing that if they could just tackle him their superior strength would end the fight. Rahkesh dodged their attacks and fought back. He rammed the fingertips of one hand into Rianae's solar plexus, drawing a gasp of pain. His next attack was to smash the side of his hand up under Daray's nose. Bone broke and blood began to flow down the vampire's face. His vision momentarily blurred by tears Daray didn't see the next move. Rahkesh seized his shoulder, elbowed him hard in the stomach, stuck one leg between the vampires and pushed. Daray fell across his leg just in time to receive a vicious round-kick punch combination from his own teammate. Rahkesh leaped as far as possible, landed on his shoulder and rolled away. The two vampires straightened themselves out; Daray's nose healing completely in the two minutes it took them to come after Rahkesh again.

This time Rahkesh could not avoid both of them, they attacked simultaneously. Daray kicked the back of one of his knees, Rahkesh turned his fall into a roll, spinning around in a move Fred and George had taught him (actually they'd been teaching him to break dance) and spun, lashing out upwards with one foot and catching Daray, who'd rushed in to tackle him, hard enough in the groin that the vampire slammed back into Rianae. Rianae leaped around him and fell, driving her shoulder into Rahkesh's gut. Rahkesh felt something break, _a rib_ he thought as pain rushed through him. He moved to hit her across the face only to find his hand pinned, fingers digging painfully into the tendons of his wrist, a second later he felt fangs against his throat and froze.

A whistle sounded. Rahkesh waited, not breathing, until the fangs moved away and the two vampires let him up. Searing pain washed over him as he tried to stand and he almost fell over again. The two vampires caught him as he staggered.

"What?" Daray asked as they helped him stay upright.

"Broken rib. You two do that every time we fight. I'm starting to think it's planned." Rahkesh gasped out, thinking that this time the injury was a lot more severe. Usually it was just a cracked rib, this was definitely worse. The two vampires, both already healed, seemed to realize that as well because they got him over to one of the benches quickly. Daray found their wands and Rianae cast a charm that allowed caused the injured area, his right floating rib, to glow and showed the damaged parts in bright red.

"Damn, sorry about that. Compound fracture. And you're bleeding internally." Rianae said. Rahkesh was starting to feel really dizzy. And the adrenaline was wearing off and horrible pain was setting in. The teachers had revived their classmates and soon the others joined them. There were a few minor injuries which were healed quickly. Then Professor Marluck came over to see what was keeping Rahkesh. He took one look at what the charm was showing and grimaced.

"That's bad. You know how to heal it?" he asked. Rahkesh nodded and took his wand from Daray. The two vampires placed a hand on each shoulder to hold him still in anticipation of a rather painful healing.

"Rememdium rib." He then promptly had to fight the urge to double over in agony as he felt pieces of bone sliding back into their proper places and mending. The two vampires force his shoulders back against the wall, keeping him upright. When Rahkesh finally remembered to breathe again he raised the wand again.

"Rememdi corpus. Fendio!" Rianae's charm showed whatever damages the pieces of broken bone had caused slowly healing. While not the best healing spells out there they were the ones he knew best and he wasn't about to try some of the others he knew of if he wasn't sure they would work. Now was not the time to experiment.

A few minutes later he was feeling much better and left with his friends for the underground pool. The teacher always insisted on a good non-stressful workout after a fight to calm down and keep muscles from stiffening as they had a tendency to do when going from very active to not active at all. Rahkesh and his four friends preferred swimming for this purpose.

"Thank you for not biting me." Rahkesh said to Rianae, guessing that it had been her fangs.

"It's a good way to end a fight." She said with a wolfish grin. Rahkesh just shook his head. It had been a little strange to realize that those sharp little fangs could slit his throat, were designed to in fact. Most mortals, when the felt vampire fangs near their throats, would completely "freak" (Ally's term for it), Rahkesh was very pleased to discover that he didn't suffer from that and kept his mind.

"Perhaps." Rahkesh agreed.

"It was tempting mind you. As powerful as you are your blood is undoubtedly delicious." Rianae continued, Daray nodded in agreement.

"Gee thanks." Rahkesh drawled. The three vampires smiled happily, apparently not getting his sarcasm.

"You're welcome. Any chance you would let us?" Silas asked.

"Absolutely not. I think I'll be selfish and keep my blood to myself." Rahkesh said, he and Ally both rolled their eyes at each other over the vampire's disappointed looks. Rahkesh rubbed sweat off his forehead and felt the fake skin was starting to curl at the edges, a sign it needed to be removed.

"I think I'll skip the swim tonight guys. I'd rather just shower. See you later?"

"Sure." Ally said, Rahkesh split from them and headed back to his rooms. Having to always be aware of when that fake skin needed to be changed was a nuisance.

Standing before the mirror in his bathroom Rahkesh pressed the fake skin onto his forehead over the lightning bolt scar. He had brewed a new batch of the potion and his latest version stayed on longer. He was so used to looking in the mirror and not seeing a scar that to see it now was surprising. He heard voices coming from the office area of his rooms checked the fake skin again.

"Rahkesh?" Rahkesh quickly hid all of his disguise things and checked the potion sitting in a caldron in the bathtub. It was done; he used a soup ladle to remove a half-gallon and dumped the rest. Only the potion that rose to the top of the caldron was useful. It was another eye changing solution to change his eye color. This time it was designed to make his eyes gold, as different as possible from his normal killing-curse green. The aqua color he'd had since leaving the Room of Requirement wouldn't be good enough among those who might know him. Finished he hid the bottle of potion in his robe pocket and went out to see who was there.

Ally, Silas, and Daray were waiting for him out in the study. It was only a week until winter break and all of Rahkesh's friends probably had plans. He hoped they did, that way he wouldn't have to worry about anyone trying to contact him while he was at home.

"What are you up to over break?" Rahkesh asked, sitting down cross-legged on his bed.

"My parents invited both of you to stay with us at the family castle for a week." Daray offered.

Ally shook her head regretfully. "I can't. I have to visit relatives, they've come all the way from India. And then I have to visit other relatives closer to home. I wish I could come though, my political views clash with those of my relatives like oil and water."

"What about you?" Silas asked Rahkesh. Rahkesh quickly thought over his plans, he certainly didn't intend on going home for three weeks.

"Sure. How about the last week of winter break?" He said. "Where is your family castle anyway?"

"Currently? It's still in Brazil. Grandma Cyala moved it out into the middle of the jungle, right along a tributary of the Amazon. Most of the family will be there, they're all vampires." Silas warned him.

"So long as no one tries to eat me." Rahkesh said.

"No. But you might hear a few stupid mortal jokes."

"If they're actually amusing I'd love to hear them." Rahkesh said with a grin, the two vampires relaxed a little.

"We'll send you a portkey by owl post. Password will be Ocelot." Daray told him.

Later after they had left Rahkesh made his way to one of Akren's three libraries. In this library was a listing of Akren Mountain School of Magic alumni. He had a hunch that some of the Order of the Phoenix, and possibly Dumbledore himself, had gone to Akren Mountain.

The Book of Graduates was an immense book. Black leather with gold bloodmagic wards scrawled across it. A piece of enchanted parchment, a quill, and an inkwell sat beside it. A small sign indicated that to find a person he should write their name on the parchment and the book would flip to the correct page, showing when, what subjects, and what masteries the person had.

_Alastor Moody_ Rahkesh wrote. The book opened and the pages began to fly, eventually it stopped.

Alastor Moody

Mastery in Dueling, Master of Disguise.

Classes: Dueling, Potions, Transfiguration, Bloodmagic, Martial Arts, Muggle Weapons, Battle Tactics, Wandless Magic, Disguise, Interrogation Tactics, Warding, Magical Law, History (European), Charms, Debating: Methods and Practices.

Moody had been very serious about his education. Rahkesh decided, taking that many classes. Rahkesh had started out fairly easy but after winter break he was starting a half-year course in Herbology in addition to his other classes. Though there were no dates for when Moody had attended. And according to another book he'd read there hadn't been any students from Hogwarts attending Akren in centuries. Which made him wonder exactly how this had happened. Unless Moody wasn't originally from Europe at all. Or time travel, or whoever was in charge of this books magic had changed it for some reason. Looking for other names he might know Rahkesh didn't find any. But what he had seen told him that his trust in Alastor Moody was well placed. He closed the book and left before anyone came along and saw him.

Rahkesh rode out of the valley on a Fire Horse, the same one he'd ridden to the hot springs, the animal appeared to have taken a liking to him. His friends and a large number of other students were with him. Nearly a hundred of them racing along the trail to the trailhead where the portkeys were.

Rahkesh separated from the group where they had seen the Yecks. He waited until all the others were out of sight and then set off into the short trees. Using the invisibility he'd been given from the Yeck cap. Hoping that its magic would conceal him, make the Yecks sense him as one of their own and not be alarmed. After an hour-long search he found tracks of what he assumed had to be a Yeck. He had studied gorilla tracks and these looked like the feet of miniature gorillas. He followed the tracks for over and hour through the snow-glazed landscape.

Finally he began seeing other Yeck tracks about besides the trail he was following and assumed that he must be getting close to their dens. Pulling out a set of Ominoculars Rahkesh scanned the surrounding slopes. In a small clearing he noticed piles of dirt and small holes in the ground. They looked like rabbit holes only a bit larger. Tracks about in front of the holes looked like what he'd been following. As he watched a small white shape with a white cap emerged from one and sat down, grooming its fur, out in the open.

Rahkesh noticed that nearby a path had been worn between two large boulders. Pulling out his wand Rahkesh transfigured the boulders so that the walls in between were rough and prickly, a bit comb like, perfect for catching fur on. He then cast a silent summoning spell at the loose Yeck fur stuck on the twigs of the trees around him. Minutes later he had enough to stuff a body pillow. Pulling out a bag that was charmed to be larger inside than out he stuffed all the loose fur in, he didn't know the value but he was sure he'd find something to use it for some day.

Rahkesh had not been wasting his time in Akren Mountain. The valley and mountains were home to many unusual creatures and Rahkesh had a knack for searching them out. He managed to get close enough to the nests of white eagles to gather their eggshells without being attacked. He had had to sit where the birds could see him every day for two months, moving a bit closer each day. Eventually they had ignored him and while they were training the chicks to fly he had summoned the eggshells to him without their noticing.

He had also found some of the plants that had hurt Tanya and managed to capture, without getting bitten, three of them. A Herbology book finally yielded their name they were called Kanakachat. The only egg-laying plant. They had a tendency to kill people and lay their eggs and sink their roots into the bodies and so very few people wanted to own them much less try to get potions ingredients from them. The plants had a stunning agent for most of the year, and a murderous venom during the breeding season. He had harvested this, it had to be taken without killing the plant, and had then fought the plants for their eggs.

Having been left behind by the others Rahkesh made his own way to the trailhead. Ut was cleared of all the obstacle and traps that had been hidden everywhere on his journey to the school and the ride went smoothly. He left the horses at the trailhead; the Fire Horses knew the way back and could open the entrance to the school. The portkeys left at the trailed head took the students to the magical sector of Regina.

Not wanting to take a carpet (partly because Sygra would never forgive him) Rahkesh headed to one of the more interesting businesses in town; the portkey center. Ally had told him about these and sure enough a large sign over the door advertised the portkeys available. Portkey centers were simply businesses, often dozens around the world owned by one company, that provided transportation via portkey to various destinations. It was a more expensive way to travel than using a flying carpet, but Rahkesh could afford it.

Scanning the list of destinations Rahkesh selected Ottawa. It had a large magical population and he would be able to find another portkey center. Probably one with more destination options than this one.

Half an hour later Rahkesh was in the front lobby of the hotel in Ottawa that he had previously stayed in. From the receptionist Rahkesh got directions to the local branch of Gringotts and three different potions supply shops. He headed to the bank first. An imperious marble building that looked a lot like its counterpart in Diagon Alley. Inside Rahkesh went up to one of the Goblins.

"I'd like to open an account." He said.

"Name?" The goblin asked Rahkesh gave his name and then deposited some of the money he'd taken from his other accounts under the name of Harry Potter before leaving home. It was good to have money stored away under different identities.

Wandering out onto the street Rahkesh set out to find all three potions shops. The first two he wandered into and dismissed. They sold only the usually things. The stuff used in making the easiest of everyday potions. The third however specialized in the unusual.

Everything You Need for the Creation of Unusual Potions – a gold sign read. Below it was a smaller sign. Working on a Potion with Tricky Ingredients? We've got what you need! This place sounded much more promising.

Inside the shop was cluttered with shelves sagging under the weight of some of the oddest potions ingredients Rahkesh had ever seen. Optic nerves of a Minke whale's eye, Platypus snot, Siren bone marrow, and other oddities that couldn't be used in more than one or two potions. Eyeing a container that said it was full of powdered ostrich beak Rahkesh saw the owner approaching in the reflected glass. He was a short wrinkled elderly wizard with bright searching eyes.

"Can I help you?" he asked in a soft whispery voice. Rahkesh turned away from the shelf and smiled politely.

"Yes. I have some unusual potions ingredients and I was wondering if you would be interested in them." Rahkesh said.

"Such as?" The old man asked with the curiosity of a true potions fanatic.

"Yeck fur. Fire Horse tail hairs. Kanakachat eggs and venom." Rahkesh replied. Watching as the old mans eyes got brighter and brighter with each ingredient he listed.

"Oh certainly! Its been years since I found someone who had those! Do you have any samples?" He asked breathlessly. As Rahkesh nodded he abruptly turned away. "Not, here, not here, come into my office. I'm Mr. Matthew Fleming." Rahkesh followed the excited old man to the office, a cluttered room with a desk and two chairs. Potions books and instructions for harvesting various odd ingredients were piled neck-high all around the room.

Rahkesh removed a silver platter from a hidden pocket and magically enlarged it. Fire horsehair had to be placed on pure silver until it was ready to be used. He then removed a box, which he also enlarged. It was another of the mutli-compartment boxes, with ten keyholes, his latest attempt at creating the things. He put the key into the first keyhole and opened the box. The glow from the hairs brightened the room considerably. They were glowing, but not flaming. He put on some plastic gloves and removed a few wispy hairs from the box and placed them on the platter. Mr. Fleming had put on his own gloves and now picked up one hair to examine it.

"Oooh. Very high quality. The beast gave you these willingly, amazing. They almost never do that. Gender?"

"A three year old male." Rahkesh replied. The box was divided down the middle and he had been careful to store the hairs he had taken from the Fire Horse he usually rode and the female he'd also gotten hairs from on different sides. "I have female as well. None from foals yet but I'm hoping to get some."

Mr. Fleming hummed and tapped the hair to see if any ashes fell off. The red glow remained constant and when he blew on it it didn't flare or turn black. He checked to make sure it hadn't been taken out by the root and that there was no skin attached.

"Very nice, very nice. And female too you said?" Mr. Fleming put the hair back in the box and pulled out a few from the other half to examine them too. "Last chap who tried to sell me these, they were fake." He commented, Rahkesh raised a politely incredulous eyebrow. "Oh yes, nothing real in them, common mundane horse hair." Mr. Fleming said, inviting Rahkesh to share in his shock that anyone would try something so stupid. Rahkesh shook his head in disbelief.

"Some people just don't know a thing about potions." He said sadly. Mr. Fleming nodded sagely. And placed the female Fire Horse hairs back.

"You said you had Yeck fur?"

When Rahkesh left the shop two hours later he'd decided upon an agreement with Mr. Fleming. The old dealer had bought a fairly substantial amount of each ingredient Rahkesh had and he had agreed to send Rahkesh a letter as soon as he started running out of any. Rahkesh had plenty of each so that no matter how fast Mr. Fleming managed to sell the stuff he wasn't going to run out. The payments were being transferred to his new Gringotts account. Rahkesh located the Ottawa portkey center and reserved a portkey to London the next day before going back to his hotel.

_Things might get a little dangerous soon Sygra_ Rahkesh warned the serpent back in his room.

_Dangerous is those damned carpets. Dangerous is people who are immune to my venom. Dangerous is larger snakes. Humans are not dangerous._ Sygra replied. _Just tell me who to bite. _Rahkesh stroked her back amused at his friend's eagerness for a fight.

_Anyone who threatens you or me._ He said.

_You've been thinking very hard about something. Tell me._ Rahkesh eyed the snake, wondering if she'd understand. She probably would, she was amazingly intelligent. He had already told her about most of his life, and Albus's death not long ago.

_That night Albus died. I've been wondering. He always trusted Snape so much. Was Snape supposed to kill him? They're both experts at Legilimency and occlumency. It would be so easy to pass a mind message that night on the rooftop. Did he tell Snape to kill him? I can't imagine Albus pleading, I think he would have just died. Was it all an act? Is Snape on our side? Hell…is he on anyone's side. I'm confused Sygra. Albus trusted Snape so much, there's a good chance he told Snape to kill him. I don't know what to think._

_Once you start Necromancy you can ask him yourself._ The snake pointed out. Rahkesh stopped suddenly. He hadn't thought of that.

_You're a genius Sygra!_

_Of course I am. Now go eat, I can hear your stomach rumbling form here. It's annoying._ Rahkesh laughed and left, feeling better than he had in a long time. If Namach really did move him up to a higher bloodmagic class he could start Necromancy much sooner.

XXXX

In another horrible attack the Dark Lord has declared war on the world of muggles. A muggle school has been attacked and the children kidnapped. All of the teachers are dead. No one knows the whereabouts of the missing children, nor what the Dark Lord intends to do with them. Obliviators and aurors are hard at work trying to find all muggles who witnessed the dark mark above the school but they may be too late. A muggle reporter was on the scene when they arrived taking pictures and it is unknown if they managed to get all of them.

Rahkesh paid for the paper and tucked it into the massive hidden pockets in the sleeves of his robes. Diagon Alley had lost its bustling amusing air. Now it was quiet and grim looking witches and wizards went about their business in silence. Everywhere around him people were dodging in and out of stores as if afraid to be on the street. The benches, formerly filled with people eating candy or selling flowers, were empty. Rahkesh picked out one that offered an uninterrupted view of the whole of Diagon Alley and sat down to read the rest of the paper. A few people cast curious looks at the relaxed stranger who didn't appear at all concerned that he was alone, and then hurried past trying to pretend they hadn't noticed him.

His second day home Rahkesh left the inn he was staying at and began a search for potions supply shops in Diagon and Knockturn Alleys. He had just finished negotiations with a rare potions ingredients shop in Knockturn Alley and was returning to the inn for lunch when he heard a piercing scream. Rahkesh, and everyone shopping around him, whirled to look in time to see dark robed figures levitate a little girl off the ground and hurl her magically through a shop window.

Death Eaters poured into the Alley from the spaces between buildings, dark hexes and curses went flying around. Rahkesh ducked behind the corner of one shop, the witch standing behind him was hit with a cruciatus curse.

"Finite Incantatem!" Rahkesh snapped, ripping the curse off her. The death eater casting it turned to him.

"Crucio!" Rahkesh dodged. And hurled a fireball at him. The death eater fell to the ground as his robes were charred and his eyebrows signed off by the flames.

"Diffindo." The ripping charm was aimed right at the recovering death eater's neck. Rahkesh watched as his throat opened up like a second mouth and blood drenched the ground.

There were children in the Alley with their parents. The Death Eaters were going after them.

"Protego!" Rahkesh's shield deflected an imperius curse aimed at a little girl who was shopping with her father.

"Thanks."

"They're after the children, get your daughter out of here." Rahkesh snapped meeting a disarming spell with a bone-breaking spell that overpowered the disarmer and shattered the caster's wrist. The father had picked up his daughter and was running. Rahkesh threw a shield around them to deflect anything thrown at them. Someone was screaming, a lot of people were screaming. A woman was lying on the ground, her body ripped apart and bleeding horribly, screaming as her son was grabbed by a death eater.

"Incendio!" The spell hit the death eater right in the face and his face burst into flames. "Accio!" The little boy came flying towards him. "Tribuo valetudo!" The woman began to heal; Rahkesh poured his strength into the spell until he knew she would live. The he pushed the boy to her and threw a shield over them both.

"Run!" The woman just looked at him. "Now, hurry." She blinked, and then leaped to her feet, picked up the little boy, and dashed off towards the Leaky Cauldron.

Picking out a group of death eaters Rahkesh took a deep breath and put his back against a wall between two stores where he would be less vulnerable.

"Fulguris!" He roared, putting everything he had into it. A year ago he would have just expected the magic to come. Now Rahkesh had learned to control the spell and directed the massive bolts of lighting into the group of death eaters. Keeping complete control of the magic after it had left the wand and all the way until it hit.

The wave of light from the lightning momentarily blinded everyone. When it had cleared the clap and boom of thunder roared through the Alley so hard the buildings shook. The death eaters were not only dead from the power of the electricity ripping their hearts apart - strength of the lightning had also lifted them off their feet and thrown them through a brick wall.

Now aurors were appeared everywhere, fighting in teams. Rahkesh noticed a group that was trying to get some injured people to safety while being overwhelmed by the death eaters. He stepped into the group and hurled a vomiting spell followed by three bone breaking spells. The auror beside him created a shield and held off the counter attack while Rahkesh put everything he had into a silent Ustulare spell. Three death eaters went up in flames with hideous screams of agony. The complete combustion spell was borderline illegal.

"Fractum. Diffindo." The bone breaker cracked someone's skull and the ripped spell slit another throat. Realizing that someone was really putting up a fight the death eaters regrouped, facing off against the aurors and a few civilians who'd stayed to help.

"Accio!" The group of death eaters he was facing lost their wands. Only two of them managed to force the spell away and keep their wands. Rahkesh tucked the captured wands into a pocket. Conjuring spiked whips to lash out magically he proceeded to rip into the unarmed death eaters.

Seeing that he was holding off a large group a few aurors began running his way. From somewhere Kingsley appeared nearby, followed by Tonks and Alastor Moody. A little girl collapsed under a stunning spell. Her mother was already dead. Rahkesh raised a hand and, channeling his anger into the effort, attempted to set the death eaters of fire. It worked. Four death eaters spontaneously combusted with a roar of flames.

Stopping the whips he began sending off silent spells to snap tendons, screams of pain issued from the black robed masked people.

"Accio!" The girl was at their feet in an instant, Rahkesh revived her and shoved her over to Moody. Who cast a shield and hurried her out of the Alley.

"FULGURIS!" With deafening thunder bolt after bolt of lightning flew out of the air around Rahkesh, the size and strength slowly increasing, along with the frequency, until the air was humming and the roar and boom of the thunder constant. There was no way to tell where one lightning bolt ended and another began, the ground began to shake.

Finally getting his magic back under control, and realizing that he'd already made a bit of a scene. Rahkesh stopped the spell and went invisible.

No one moved, there was absolute silence. The attacking force of death eaters was almost entirely dead. No one could hear a thing, temporarily deaf. The air smelled of burnt ozone.

Finally the aurors began to move, taking wands and binding the few death eaters who had miraculously survived being struck by such massive bolts of lightning. A few went to help the injured. Rahkesh changed the color of his robes and slipped into a crowd and become visible again.

"Wonderful afternoon ain't it?" Rahkesh asked Kingsley as he knelt beside an injured child and removed the stunning spell. Kingsley just stared at him incredulously. The girls mother came running over and took her away.

Reporters arrived; the aurors were going about asking everyone how the attack had started.

"They were already here, hiding anywhere they could. Waiting until the maximum number of people were in the Alley." Rahkesh told Kingsley and another auror he didn't know.

"They must have snuck in over the last few days. Or from Knockturn Alley. Are you injured?" the unfamiliar auror asked.

"No. I'm fine. It looked like they were after the children."

"Perhaps." Kingsley said evasively. "What were you doing here today?"

"I was on my way to one of the potions shops. I'm a supplier of rare potions ingredients." Rahkesh said. That got curious looks.

"Oh? Where?"

"There's a shop over there." Rahkesh said, waving a hand to the entrance to Knockturn Alley.

"Do you know what that is?" Kingsley asked now looking at Rahkesh as if he were a possible threat.

"It says Knockturn Alley." He replied, looking a bit confused The two aurors exchanged glances and apparently decided that he wasn't from around London and didn't know about the Alley's reputation.

"Most of the shops in Knockturn specialize in things that are not entirely legal." Kingsley's companion finally said. Rahkesh let himself look surprised

"Oh." He paused, "Yeck fur is not illegal." He finished giving the aurors an annoyed look.

"We weren't suggesting you were trafficking in illegal objects sir. Just that it isn't the place for people doing an honest business." The auror hurried to make sure he hadn't taken what he'd said as in insult.

"Ah. I'll take your word for it. I've never been to London before. Fine way to spend my first visit." He said, looking around at the smoldering remains of the Alley. "I say, that security device of yours that created the lightning was something. What is it?"

"It wasn't-" Kingsley nudged his companion when the man went to say that it hadn't been anything to do with the aurors.

"I'm sorry sir, need to know only." Kingsley said quickly. Rahkesh nodded. "Now sir I think you killed several of them."

"Yes." Rahkesh admitted. "You always fight fire with fire. If they're trying to kill you and kidnap a bunch of children you'd better fight back just as violently. Else they'll always be ahead of you."

"In the future we would appreciate it if you did not." Kingsley told him sternly. Rahkesh gave him a look that said quite clearly what he thought of Kingsley's intelligence.

"I seem to remember several of your people doing the same."

"Yes well. It's our job. We're not really supposed too." Kingsley plainly disagreed with that policy, "and everyone who did will of course be reprimanded." Rahkesh sincerely doubted that.

"Well if you'll excuse me, I'll be off." He said, looking around at the Alley for a moment. The two aurors seemed to think he had no more to tell them anyway because they started looking around for someone else to question.

"It's really very nice usually." The younger one told him.

"I'm sure it is." Rahkesh agreed. Giving the impression that he very much doubted that.

Leaving aurors Rahkesh walked towards Gringotts, wondering if they would come after him. They didn't. Glancing into a shattered window he saw in the reflection a familiar face. Alastor Moody detached himself from the shadows near the aurors and began moving in a slowly aimless manner…following Rahkesh. Damn, he'd probably been caught; the canny old auror was on to him.

Passing the last of the aurors Moody moved away in the direction Rahkesh had taken. As he past the smoldering blasted corner of a shattered building Rahkesh stepped out and stopped beside him. His invisibility, given by taking the cap of a Yeck, had outdone even Moody's eye. The auror might be able to see through the broken side of the building, but he couldn't see past whatever magics Rahkesh had gotten when he'd taken the cap. Moody whirled with astounding speed, given his age and disabilities. Only to find his wand was already out of his hand and hovering inches away from Rahkesh.

"Alastor really." He said, concentrating on the magical potion he was wearing in his eyes, its effects faded briefly and Alastor Moody found himself staring into killing curse green eyes. He said nothing and gave Rahkesh an angry glare. "I'm going to give you your wand back, then you'll follow me." Rahkesh told him sternly and handed the wand back. Without waiting to see what Moody did he walked into the Leaky Cauldron.

In the pub Rahkesh pointed out an empty booth to Moody. The old auror crossed the room slowly, the seat was located so that they could see both doors and the staircase, no one would surprise them. Rahkesh got a butterbeer and slid into the seat across from Moody. He said nothing; just drank and mended the scorched sleeves of his robes.

Rahkesh took out a lump of what look like silver and placed it on the table. Moody reached out and cut his finger a bit on the sharp pin sticking out of the lump and pressed the blood into an indentation in the mass.

"Alastor Moody." The lump glowed white briefly. It was a high quality device that checked if someone was who they said they were by reading the magical signature while they spoke, checking for honesty. They had made the things in potions class the second month of school. Rahkesh put it away and they sat in silence again.

"You were following me." Rahkesh stated, finally getting tired of the auror's staring.

"You've been missing for nearly six months." The old auror growled. Rahkesh flicked his hand, and the wand hidden in his sleeve, sending up silencing spells, notice-me-not wards, and anti-eavesdropping charms.

"Yes. I assume you can see through the fake skin?" He asked curiously.

"Yeah. Nice disguise job."

"Thank you. But I was rather hoping you wouldn't be able to see past that stuff." Rahkesh said with a disappointed sigh. They sat in silence for a moment.

"You have a lot of answering to do." Moody finally said.

"You might have a lot of questions to ask. But I don't intend to answer all of them if I don't like them." Rahkesh replied softly.

"Do you have any idea how worried we were?" Now he was starting to sound a bit irritated.

"Probably." Rahkesh replied honestly.

"Nothing to say for yourself?"

"I needed training that Hogwarts couldn't give me, so I went elsewhere."

"Where?"

Rahkesh studied the ancient auror for a few moments. Remembering that Moody's name was in the list of Akren alumni.

"Canada." He stated finally. Moody's eyes went wide, and then he threw back his head and laughed.

"Clever boy, very clever." The auror laughed happily, apparently quite delighted with the knowledge that Rahkesh was studying at his old school. "I always told Albus you ought to go there. He wouldn't hear of you leaving Hogwarts. How did you find it?"

"The Room of Requirement." Rahkesh replied. Wondering if Moody knew of it. Moody nodded his head.

"Enjoying yourself?"

"Immensely." Rahkesh said with a smile. Moody nodded.

"The Order looked for you for a bit. But we gave up. Your friends are still looking." Moody told him. Rahkesh felt a brief flash of guilt for his friend's anxiety over his current location. And then pushed it away. He had told them the reason why they couldn't know where he was.

"You read the letter?" He asked.

"Yeah. Having any problems with the assassins?"

"I only got back yesterday. And the disguise _is_ pretty good." Rahkesh responded.

"Well yer fighting has certainly improved." Moody growled approvingly. "And don't mind Kingsley, they're not supposed to kill but everyone knows they do. Since he's still on the payroll he has to spout off that nonsense about not killing. Me, I'm retired and nobody's gonna come and tell me I can't mess up the death eaters. Mind you I usually try not to." No, Rahkesh thought, no one was going to try to tell Alastor Moody how to handle death eaters.

"I came back to see how everyone was holding up."

"A lot of folks have left. I've been telling the Weasley's they ought to send the children elsewhere to finish their schooling but they won't hear of it. Your friend Hermione won't either. Maybe you can talk some sense into them."

"Maybe. I don't think they'd be able to get into Akren much less handle it." Rahkesh said, Moody thought about that and then nodded in agreement.

"Well I can't say I know them very well but I agree. Miss Ginerva Weasley might manage it okay." Moody said. Rahkesh thought about that. More he thought about it the better that idea sounded.

"Maybe." He said finally.

"Everyone thinks you left to finish training somewhere safer, at a place Albus recommended." Moody said with a twisted grin. "I don't think he'd ever recommend Akren. But we're not about to correct them. Let people think what they will." Rahkesh nodded in agreement. "Suicide rate's gone up some, folks aren't giving up but Albus's death was a nasty shock to everyone. You going to tell me what you and he were doing leaving the castle that night?"

Rahkesh sighed and nodded. Then he began to explain.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

_Harry, _

_Mum says that if you don't come over she'll have to skin you alive. Well she didn't say that but you know how she gets when she really means it. I think that means you'd better come over. The rest of the family (besides Pig-head Percy) will be there and Ron invited Hermione as well. _

_Thanks for the rubber chickens, they're great._

_Looking forward to seeing you again mate!_

_Gred and Forge_

Rahkesh smiled at the note, no question, no real demands. He'd chosen to contact the twins because they were easily the calmest of the four younger Weasleys. Rahkesh crumpled up the short note and held it on the palm of his hand. Staring it at he willed it to burn drawing the magic into the paper and setting it alight. With a soft whoosh of flames it turned to ash in his hand, leaving his palm unharmed. Rahkesh let out the breath he'd been holding and smiled. He was getting better at that.

Rahkesh finished transfiguring his hair and took a look in the mirror. The messy hair was back, he preferred it the way it had been for six months, glossy black and wavy rather than this mess. The fake glasses looked just like his old ones and his eyes were back to being green again. He couldn't do anything about the added height but that was okay, he didn't want to.

For Christmas he had gotten the twins a pair of rubber chickens that bit you when you turned your back on them. Everyone else got massive plastic pink flamingos, which would untransfigure themselves into their real presents later. He'd given them small glowing orbs that could be stored inside a wand and then sent out to follow you. Most of his friends used their wands for the lumos spell, and that tied up the wand. In order to cast another spell they had to stop the light spell. The little glowing orbs would provide plenty of light and still leave their wands free to cast other spells. His friends from Akren also got rubber chickens, which would also untransfigure themselves later. Ally had gotten a necklace with all sorts of useful potions and enchantments stored inside of it to use when needed. The vampires got a series of enchantments that, if performed properly, should render them undetectable to vampire spells. He'd found those in the Room of Requirement too, in one of the books on vampires he'd copied without reading.

He was only going to the Burrow for one night, the next day, and the day after that. He really didn't think that staying longer was a good idea, especially if they didn't take his new - school that he couldn't tell them about - thing very well.

Rahkesh, no no, he had to be _Harry_ now, apparated to the Burrow that evening. Rather than go inside at once he waited outside the house, casting an eavesdropping spell that Ally had taught him.

"Ron he's got to tell us, we're his friends. We have to convince him to stay, or at least take us with him." Hermione was saying.

"I think he made it pretty clear that that wasn't going to happen." Fred said.

"Harry's a tough chap." George added, "He'll be fine." Rahkesh…_Harry_ he reminded himself, smiled. His trust in the twins was also well placed.

"Yes but how is he going to pass his NEWTs if he's not here?" Hermione asked.

"There's more to life than those tests."

"You were ready to go with him."

"What about your NEWTs?"

"I think Harry knows what he's doing more than you realize." It was the twins again, speaking in turns. Harry couldn't tell which started first.

"All right, we're going with him then." This was Ginny now.

"Or at least get him to tell us where he's been." Ron added.

"I don't understand how he could hide so well. Everyone looked for him. We sent letters to a dozen different schools! I've searched every corner of the library and there's no mention of any other school that teaches a class about Horcruxes!" Harry frowned; they really were trying to find him. And clearly it hadn't worked. Hermione hated not knowing something. Too bad for her, he wasn't staying or telling them anything. He walked up to the door and knocked. It flew open a second later.

"Harry!" Ginny hugged him, and then dragged him inside. Harry ignored his friend for a moment and turned to greet the other Weasley's.

"Afternoon Mr. Weasley." He said, smiling and shaking Arthur's hand.

"Wonderful to see you again Harry." Mr. Weasley said.

"Oh my, you've grown." Mrs. Weasley said, pulling him into the living room and gesturing towards an empty seat. "Sit down, sit down."

"How's it going Harry?" Charlie asked, looking up briefly from his chess game with Bill. There were almost no pieces left but neither seemed to be winning.

"Oh I'm fine, how are you Bill?" Harry asked, wondering just what had been the eventual result of the werewolf attack last year.

"Fine. Restless and agitated on the full moon anymore. Great night vision though. And I've been eating a lot more meat ever since that fight." Bill said.

"No tail and furry paws huh?" Harry said, Bill chuckled.

"No. Thank goodness. The fangs might have been interesting though." Harry relaxed, if Bill could joke about it then it couldn't be too bad.

"I bet you could manage a wolf animagus form pretty easily now." He suggested.

"Hm. I hadn't thought of that. That might be nice." Bill mused, knocking Charlie's last knight off the board.

"Did you give everyone the luck potions?" Harry asked Hermione.

"Yes, we all have them, and we gave one to Tonks as well. The last one we decided to give to Neville's Grandmother. She's all he's got left you know." Hermione said. Harry nodded, he'd brewed another batch and brought some of it with him just in case. It had been tempting to use it during the fight but he'd decided against it. He had to be able to fight on his own. Reliance upon a potion was a very bad thing.

Dinner was a surprisingly pleasant affair, Fleur and Mrs. Weasley had cooked up something halfway between a French and an English dinner. They were apparently getting along very well. After dinner had been cleaned up everyone went back to the living room.

"Okay Harry. Talk." Ginny told him.

"About?"

"Where you've been of course!" Hermione said.

"Elsewhere. Learning. I can't tell you where or what I've been learning." Harry replied, sure that they weren't going to like that answer.

"Oh come on mate! You can't just vanish like that and not tell us where you've been!" Ron protested.

"Yes I can. I can't tell you any of that stuff so I'm not going to."

"But Harry you've got to tell what country at least!" Ginny said.

"No I can't. That would give too much away."

"Harry dear, what if something happens? We need to know where you are." Mrs. Weasley tried.

"No. If something happens then it does." Harry said firmly.

"Fine what have you been learning?" Hermione asked.

"I just said I couldn't tell you." Harry reminded her.

"But Harry what if it isn't part of the NEWTs curriculum?"

"Then it isn't. I'm still not telling you."

"What about the Horcruxes?" George finally asked. Harry shot him a grateful look.

"I haven't figured out where they are. But I'm learning a better way to find them. It will take a few years but eventually I should be able to find them easily enough. Of course, I intend to destroy Nagini as soon as possible."

"So how are you going to find them?" Hermione asked.

"Can't tell you that."

"Damn it Harry you've got to tell us!" Ginny snapped furiously.

" No actually I don't." This time Fred intervened before they could start yelling.

"What can you tell us?" That got everyone to be quiet.

"That I'm going to a different, very selective school. The stuff we learn probably isn't anything like any other school's curriculum. There's students from a variety of different species. I have several vampire friends. I've been learning wandless magic. That's about it." Harry said.

"Vampires?" Ron asked, "but don't they, well, you know…"

"No I don't, what?" Harry replied, Ron missed the warning note in his voice. _None of my new friends would have missed that_ Harry thought, immediately angry at himself for thinking it. But he couldn't help it. He, Ally, Daray and Silas were much more in tune with each other.

"I mean, don't they, drink _blood_?"

"Of course. They're vampires."

"You're _okay with that_?"

"Sure. Why wouldn't I be?" Harry asked. Ron stared at him.

"I think he's trying to ask if they ever drink _your_ blood." Bill said finally.

"Oh, of course not. They just drink the blood of the animals that are slaughtered for the school meals." Harry said with a laugh. Ron didn't relax much. Apparently the idea of vampires was too much for him. "Most of them are nice enough. They're a very interesting species." Harry said.

"Please tell me you're not learning anything illegal at that school." Hermione said.

"I don't know if any of it is illegal. I've already told you that the school isn't in Britain." Harry replied.

"We asked every school we could, find, none of them said they had any new students fitting your description." Ron said finally, Hermione glared at him, apparently she hadn't wanted to tell him that.

"If I was at any of those places don't you think I would have disguised myself? Or made sure that the headmaster would deny knowing I was there?" Harry asked. "And you can stop bothering them, you won't find the place I'm at."

"Fine. Can you tell us what it's called?" Harry glared at Hermione, "all right. Fine."

"What about those assassins?" Mr. Weasley asked.

"Oh Harry you're in so much danger. Why not stay here where the Order can keep you safe?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"You'll forgive me," Harry said harshly, "if I have absolutely no faith in the Order to keep anything or anyone safe. As to assassins," he turned to Mr. Weasley, "I'm not too worried. They can't kill me where I am, and if they know I'm back in Britain, which they don't since I've been disguised, then they'll have quite a fight on their hands to get me." He grinned in a not-so-nice wolfish way.

"Harry they're professional killers." Mrs. Weasley protested.

"And?" Harry asked again, hinting that she really ought to drop it.

"Harry this isn't a game. They're professional killers and if they get you they will kill you. The Ministry and the Order can keep you safe from them." Ginny snapped at him.

"Oh I'm very much aware it isn't a game. I've already killed one of them. And I don't trust the Ministry or the Order as far as I can throw them. I'm very safe where I've been." Harry said in the coldest voice he could manage. "Now how about you tell me what's been going on here."

"Hogwarts opened late this year." George began, drawing the conversation away from Harry.

"Yeah, new defense professor is another Ministry lackey. Absolutely horrid. Umbridge got put on the board of directors you know. Defense class is all out of text books again." Ron said miserably.

"But in the second half of the year we'll be doing practical stuff. Theory first then the actual spells. I think he's a good teacher, and he stopped Umbridge from being so nasty " Hermione said, Ron glared. Harry decided the new professor was probably either good looking or played favorites.

"Slytherins are saying you're dead or run away." Ginny added.

"A lot of students left, most of them either home schooled or going abroad." Hermione said. "There were only fourteen first year students."

"Why didn't you go elsewhere?" Harry asked her.

"Hogwarts is the best there is. And I'm not leaving, it's too much like giving up." She said angrily.

"What if I told you that Hogwarts is actually not such a school and your education there is so much less then what it is elsewhere that most of those students who went abroad have been set back years because of how behind they are?" Harry asked.

"What?" Mrs. Weasley said. "Hogwarts is the best wizarding school."

"No it isn't. In ranking it against all other public wizarding schools – there are sixty one of them, Hogwarts came in ranked forty five." Harry replied, seeing the shock, and in Hermione's case, horror.

"That's not possible, you must be reading it wrong." Hermione said finally. "I refuse to believe it."

"Oh it's true. Hogwarts students usually have to stay in Britain because they couldn't get hired anywhere else. This information has been suppressed for years because if everyone knew what other schools think of Hogwarts there'd be a massive outcry to change things, and you know the pureblood movement is against change. Especially the kind that would be needed" Harry said. He'd read up on other wizarding schools before returning. Most of them used muggle science to help teach magic. Like he had learned, especially in transfiguration. Knowing what was actually happening, though not how, was very important. The Purebloods would never allow it.

"In most of the world students go to school starting at the age of eight, the first five years it's only day school. With students going home in the afternoon and coming back the next morning. After that they go away to a secondary school until the age of nineteen. Then there is another level of school that goes from nineteen to twenty four. Students compete to get into those schools and there they start to specialize in whatever they plan to do. I have friends who have attended these schools. They learn all the things muggles students do along with everything magical. Apparently knowing all the muggle stuff makes learning magic easier. Most of the world considers European schooling to be horribly backwards and inadequate. And they're right. Students form Hogwarts don't measure up at all against students from elsewhere." Harry explained, seeing their shock and knowing that this news was going to cause real problems for Hermione.

"Why haven't we heard anything about that?" Mrs. Weasley demanded.

"I don't really know. I think it's being suppressed, and if foreigners told anyone they'd be ignored because everyone is so loyal to Hogwarts. But it really isn't a quality school. The people who left are the ones who really get it. It isn't running away if it's for a better education. And they're safe." Harry replied. He was hoping his friends might be persuaded to leave. They'd get exposure to the real world, which they were, with the possible exception of Hermione, rather naïve about, and they'd get a better education and they'd be safer. But that decision was up to them.

"Have you used those potions yet?" Harry asked.

"Nah, saving it for the next time death eaters attack." Ron said, "Remus got the idea of putting them inside special compartments in our shoes, or wearing them on necklaces." Harry nodded he'd have to go see Remus before he left. He missed Remus too, and maybe he'd stop by to see Neville.

Harry left a day earlier than planned. He'd gotten tired after only a few hours of Hermione and Ginny trying to trick him into talking and Ron was trying not so subtly to persuade him to stay. They were very clingy, their lives so wrapped up around his that they couldn't seem to get away and live on their own. It bothered him, they couldn't just say goodbye for a few years, they were almost obsessed with knowing everything that he was learning and where he was learning it.

"So you're really just going to leave us knowing nothing?" Ginny said as Harry left.

"Yes. Sorry but I really can't say anything." Harry said, very tired of the repetitive nature of this.

"Harry, would this school let us enter? Could we transfer in and join you? I rather think that would solve the problem of not being able to tell us." Ginny suggested.

"No. They don't accept students halfway through the year. And I'm not sure you'd manage well. It's a very rough place, you have to heal all you own injuries, stuff like that. Very different classes." Harry said, mentally thinking that after so many years with wands neither Weasley would be much good at thread magic. And Ron was a bit close minded. The vampires would take him apart.

"Harry we're your _friends_." Hermione said angrily, she'd been angry ever since he'd refused to tell them what he was learning.

"You are my friends, please, do me a favor and drop it. I'll see you in a few years if not sooner. Why can't you just accept that?" Harry asked. None of them could really answer that.

"Because we're you friends, we worry about you." Ginny said.

"Thanks, try not too, I'm very safe."

"Yeah, with vampires." Ron said.

"I rather like some of those vampires Ron, there's nothing wrong with them."

"Harry, please, you can't do this." Hermione pleaded.

"Yes, I can. And I need to." Harry said, and apparated back to the inn.

XXXX

Back in his usual form Rahkesh slid into the seat across from Remus and Neville. They were in Hogsmead; he'd given them letters to meet him there at a pub. It had been several days since he'd left the Burrow. The time had been spent finding out what all the Potter and Black estates were. He'd go back to Gringotts later for some things from the vaults.

"Who are you?" Neville asked, "oh, _Harry?_"

"New name now. And don't say that so loud. I'm disguised for a reason." Harry said smiling. "Sorry I can't tell you my new name, but the less you know the better."

"Growth potion?" Remus asked.

"Yeah. Really nice. Oh and the hair is permanent." Harry added. Remus grinned.

"James spent years trying to find a way to fix that."

"Where have you been?" Neville asked. Harry flipped open a menu.

"Lets order first, I'll tell you over lunch."

"Okay." Remus said several minutes later as they began to eat. "What's been happening with you?"

"I found a new school. One that can teach me more than Hogwarts ever could. I'm enjoying it, love it actually. It's safe, very safe, from the assassins and Voldemort. I'm sorry I can't tell you anything more but it just isn't safe and we're not allowed to." Harry said apologetically.

"Nothing else?" Neville asked, Harry shrugged and tried to think of something else.

"One of my teachers has a magical frill-necked lizard for a pet. The headmistress owns a magical snow leopard. I'm hoping to learn magics that will enable me to find and destroy the Horcruxes much easier then it would be now. Without getting killed when I destroy them."

"Soul magic." Remus muttered. "Good god. Be careful Harry."

"I will. I know the dangers. And it will take a few years."

"Have you seen Ron and Hermione yet?" Neville asked.

"Yeah. Our…reunion…didn't go so well. They're too pushy, won't stop trying to get me to tell them where I've been." Harry said.

"Well you can't blame them, they've been your friends for years." Remus said

"That's exactly why I can blame them. They know I wouldn't do this if I didn't have to, and if I don't want to tell them anything then they really ought to respect that, it doesn't concern them much anyway." Harry said. Remus thought about that and then nodded. "You'd probably like this place Remus. There are students from every species and a lot of lycanthropes. They use wolfsbane potions every month so every student learns to brew it. You liked the present?" Remus beamed, his present had been several month worth of wolfsbane potion. It was the latest version available, though not one Rahkesh could brew yet, this new type could be preserved for up to six months.

"Yes, thank you. It really does help." Remus said.

"And how are you Neville?" Harry asked.

"Fine, fine. Gran says thanks for the potion by the way. School isn't the same without you, you know. Slytherins are being absolutely miserable. Everyone's so frightened." Neville said, "but none of them really know what they're frightened of. It's like a little fear is being fed by others fear until it multiplies and suddenly everyone's terrified. No one wants to anger the pro-dark Slytherins because they're afraid they'll get killed, or their families will. The Slytherins are loving it." Neville said, that easily telling Harry more about the situation at Hogwarts than anyone else had. Harry leaned across the table and slid a parchment to Neville.

"It's a spell list. Memorize them and practice them, Room of Requirement is a good place. They're great. Very good at ending a fight and not illegal." He said, Remus looked at the list a nearly choked.

"Make them wet their pants and then create boils on their hands?"

"Humiliates and it's hard to retaliate if you can't hold a wand." Harry said maliciously. "The wrist breaker is pretty good too. And even if they give you detention Filch ought to be nicer to you if you remind him that the Slytherins want him dead because he's a squib, or almost is. Oh and that one at the bottom wipes spells from the memory of the wand, priori incantatem won't find a thing. Just tell who ever calls you on the attack to try priori and they'll think you're innocent. It's a very rare spell though so don't tell anyone else. The parchment is keyed to you and Remus only."

"Devious." Remus said, not at all disapprovingly, "I have never heard of that spell."

"And you won't ever again. Here," Harry handed over two small phials, "antidote to Vertisarum. I know, I know, there's isn't supposed to be an antidote that actually works, this does. I told you I was going to a great school." He had bought the potions from an older student who was about to take the tests for her Potions Mastery. They had been a bit expensive, but Rahkesh didn't mind when it came to keeping the few people he really cared about safe.

"Why the antidote?" Neville asked.

"Incase your new defense teacher, or Umbridge, calls you into their office for a little chat over some tea. They'll dose the tea to make you tell them things." Harry said. Neville put his phial away and Remus slid his into a chest pocket.

"Remus is the Order using or watching 12 Grimauld Place?"

"I don't think anyone is. If there's anyone there I don't know of it." Remus replied, "there's something a little odd about that, I know you told Dumbledore it was okay to use it but the house won't let us in."

"Probably that dratted house elf." Harry mused, "I guess I'll probably kill Kreacher before I leave then. Can't have him telling secrets to someone else and making things difficult" Remus winced, then shook his head.

"Won't be necessary, he's already dead. He just suddenly died a few months ago. No one knows how, might have been old age, might have been Dobby, no one is going to ask." Harry smiled, he'd sent Dobby two pairs of socks, one silk and one fleece, and thank you letter for the house elf's help over the years. Harry pushed his plate away and rested his head on his hands. "Remus, did you know Sirius's brother?"

"Huh? Where did that come from?" Remus asked.

"The Horcruxes. Whoever took the last one had the initials R.A.B." Harry replied. He'd thought that one out within the first few weeks of school.

"Oh. Regulus. Yes. I never knew his middle name. Regulus was younger then us, several years younger. He was a Slytherin. Sirius and he hated each other. But Sirius didn't get along with any of his siblings much. He was the black sheep. Regulus was killed though Harry, he was a death eater and he left Voldemort. Voldemort killed him."

"Did he?" Harry asked. "I don't think so, he probably sent a death eater to do it. Regulus could have escaped, and no one is going to tell Voldemort that they failed." Remus stared at him for several minutes.

"Harry you told me about the note," Neville said, "it said that the person who wrote it would already be dead." Harry nodded.

"Yes, perhaps. Dumbledore almost lost his hand destroying one of them. But there's no way to know for sure if they would kill the person who destroyed them. By the way, do you know where Fletcher is?" Harry asked.

"Mundungus? He's in France until summer. I have no idea why he decided to go there." Remus said, "why do you ask?" Harry looked between the two of them. Wondering. He might as well run his theory past them. No one else was available.

"It isn't inconceivable that Regulus is alive. If he was he would have had many years with Voldemort out of the way to gather the Horcruxes. Since his brother was in Azkaban, Grimauld Place was his and he would know he could hide stuff there. Such as the Horcruxes as he gathered them. Destroying them is clearly dangerous so if he was determined to die, which he might have been, he would have wanted to destroy all of them at once. Since Grimauld place hasn't been destroyed, nor the other properties the Black family owned, (Harry had checked those several days before) I can only assume he never did destroy them. Mundungus Fletcher was stealing things form that house and selling them, perhaps he found the Horcruxes and sold them without realizing what they were? It would explain why Regulus couldn't destroy them." Harry theorized, he knew it was a long shot, a very, very, long shot, but he _knew_ Regulus was alive.

"That's an interesting theory, however unlikely." Remus said.

"There is also more than one interpretation of the word dead. Vampires are called the undead after all, could be Regulus became one of them." Harry said, he had not thought of that before.

"This is all assuming that this Regulus is alive." Neville pointed out, "Voldemort, or whomever he sent, might have killed Regulus after all."

"If Regulus were alive he would be the only one who could counter what I did with Grimauld Place. He could have the house keep people out." Harry said, "I don't know how else that would be happening."

"That does seem like someone else overriding or interfering with your hold on the place." Remus agreed. They ate dessert in near silence, Neville telling Harry about what had been happening with certain individuals in school.

"Remus, Neville, have either of you considered getting out of Britain?" Harry asked.

"Uh, no." Neville said, "Gran wouldn't go for it." Harry repeated what he'd told the others about the quality, or the lack thereof, of Hogwarts schooling.

"What about you Remus?"

"Oh I don't know. I'd like to be around, to help stop Voldemort." Remus said, Harry got the impression that the werewolf didn't really know or care what the other possibilities were. Or Remus was doing a very good job of being evasive…actually that was far more likely. Harry eyed Remus for a moment, and decided that Remus didn't want to discuss this too much.

"You know that in just about every non-European country werewolves have full equal rights." Harry commented, by Remus's surprised look he guessed that Remus hadn't known.

"They do? Really?"

"Canada, The United Sates, New Zealand, all of the South American countries, Japan, Korea…well South Korea anyway…Russia. You could go anywhere." Harry told him. And it was true; switching citizenship was much easier in the magical world because populations were so small everywhere that newcomers were welcomed. Unlike most muggle countries that restricted immigration.

"I have never really thought about leaving Europe entirely. Maybe. But I want to see this war through first." Remus said. Harry nodded, knowing from Remus's tone that the werewolf would not be changing his mind.

After the two had left Harry relaxed in his seat for a moment, noticing, but pretending not too, when someone in an invisibility cloak sat down across from him.

"Harry." Harry nodded and rose, sensing the invisible person do the same, and left. Outside he walked idly around behind the pub. Moody pulled off his cloak and tucked it into a pocket. The two then wandered out into Hogsmead, Harry very glad for his disguise.

"You were eavesdropping." Harry said simply. Moody did not appear at all apologetic, only delighted that Harry had noticed.

"Yeah. And the theory is a good one. No one ever found Regulus's body. I know because I didn't think he was dead. I snuck in behind everyone's back checked the casket while at the funeral." Moody said, Harry tried hard not to laugh or roll his eyes. "They put a body in, but it wasn't Regulus. Possibly the poor bloke sent to kill him. Regulus was pretty good at transfiguration and potions."

"Not an animagus?"

"I don't think so. He was probably not back then, though he could be now."

"Are you back working for the aurors or are you permanently retired?"

"I'm teaching a course or two at the auror Academy. The youngsters these days… impossible…not going to survive their first duel." Moody said, shaking his head sadly.

"Recruit some alumni." Harry said, not having to say where from.

"Possibly. Most of them don't care what's going on here. They figure Voldemort is going to win, then they'll get rid of him and take over. Or whatever. Werewolves all seem to be against him, vampires couldn't care less, lets not start on the veela." Moody said.

"Mundungus Fletcher?"

"I'll let you know when he gets back. If he sold those Horcruxes…if they were in Grimauld in the first place…I might just kill him."

"Not until after we learn who he sold them to. I want his memories taken while he's under a truth serum, nothing less." Harry told him, Moody nodded. "I'm installing an observation device in Grimauld tomorrow to see if anyone drops by."

"Good idea, can they be monitored from that far away?"

"We'll see. I'm going to Brazil soon. If I can't monitor them from there then maybe Remus would do it."

"I could do some too."

"Thanks. I let you know if they work." Harry said, glad to have the auror's help. Moody nodded and abruptly apparated away when a stray spell flew past. Harry glanced over his shoulder, a little kid was being scolded for stealing his mother's wand. Figuring that Moody wouldn't be back Harry apparated to the small house the Potters owned not far outside of Hogsmead. Just a little cottage but it was enough. He'd moved his things there and the observation devices he'd bought in Knockturn (since they were also designed to blow up when the viewer wished, assassination devices). He'd install them the next day.

XXX

Harry walked through the Potter family vault. Besides all the money there were some other interesting things in here. This included three dragon's eggs that were being kept in a time capsule so that they never aged. He didn't recognize the eggs; they weren't in the books on dragons sitting next to the capsule. Harry thought it best to leave them alone.

There were two magical turtles also being kept in out-of-time cages, a male and female. The small journal beside the cages read that they were some of the last of a very rare species. They'd been secreted away by his great great grandfather because they were so valuable. He'd noticed them on his first visit the day before and had since done a bit of research. There were five of these turtles left, all in captivity. Two in the United States, two in Australia, and one in the public magical creature zoo here in England. With the two turtles were two eggs. It was the eggs that were valuable, and the shells, and the eyes, and the brains, and the claws, the whole turtle could be used in potion making. They had been hunted to extinction because of this, and because the eggs could be crushed, powdered, soaked in a few other things like acromatula blood, then dried and spun into silk. The rarest silks in the world. These two were living treasures. Harry decided then and there to find the time to bring them back to the world and look after them. He didn't know how often they reproduced but this seemed like a species worth saving.

He also found a set of four identical knives that he really liked. And there was also a set of two tiny knives of a sort he'd never seen before. Next to them was a set of books on the Indonesian martial arts, specifically the Pentjak Silat fighting styles. A massive set of books; someone must have been a real enthusiast. Flipped one of them open Harry found enchanted moving pictures and demonstrations. Harry took a few of the books that appeared to be designed for beginners, and left the knives. Maybe there'd be something in here to help him beat the vampires.

The previous day he had picked out a handful of books, some about necromancy, some about bloodmagic, and a few others. Why they weren't being kept in the family library was a good question, Harry figured it was because of how rare they were. He'd brought them to the cottage and copied them using enchanted quills over the night and that morning. Now he put the originals back. He found a set of knife sheaths designed to be placed on the arms, legs, shoulders, and back, and took these with him. He also picked out some Dyalnos seeds that were being kept dried in a box filled with rare plant seed. Dyalnos, known in several languages as the blood tree produced a magically powerful sap, leaves and roots used in potions and enchantments, and wood used in wand making. It was called the blood tree because the sap and leaves were blood red. And when watered with blood the tree produced a wood that could be used for making wands or staffs for only the person whose blood the tree drank. It was an enormously powerful and exceptionally rare plant. Harry thought he could try to grow one or two trees on his balcony. He'd already started draining off a little blood every day, ever since he saw the seeds. That way he could feed them when he wasn't around.

Picking out a few other objects to take Harry left the vault, nodding a polite thank you to the goblin who'd driven the cart, if they called that driving.

XXX

Grimauld was empty, dark, and silent. Nothing moved. Harry placed one orb into the wall above the door, it slid into the wood of the door and became invisible. Opening the door he placed a second one at the end of the front hallway looking back towards the entrance. Another on the staircase. Two on the chimneys to see if anyone entered or left by the windows. One in the basement. And another three scattered around the house. He didn't stop to look around long, there was little here that he had the time to find or to try to un-enchant.

The orbs all fed into another, larger, orb that Harry carried with him. It played what the others saw, if anything moved then the picture switched to that orb. He could control it via nine tiny orbs set into the copper base of the large one.

As he was leaving the house he felt something, some presence, and looked up. Searching the sky he saw a large dark shape flitting about, suddenly a bat seemed to materialize hanging from his arm. It had a small harness strapped to its back. Taking the creature in his arms Rahkesh flipped the latch on the backpack and pulled out a small envelope. The bat hung on his shoulder as he opened it and under a streetlamp to read.

_Rahkesh,_

_You know what the password is. Nine a.m. your time._

Daray

"You can go," Rahkesh told the courier bat, it flew away. Rahkesh looked inside the envelope and found a large scale of some sort. It was a dark green with flecks of gold and a dark purple gleam at the edges.

The next morning Rahkesh had his things packed and had shut up the cottage. He wrapped Sygra around his neck and shoulders and tucked his shrunk bags into a pocket.

"Ocelot." He felt the annoying jerk and a whoosh of air.

The hot humid air hit him like a brick wall. He was standing in a clearing in the middle of the tallest trees he'd ever seen. The towering giant trees were draped in vines thicker than his arm. Everything was shockingly green, every shade of it imaginable from the dark understory to the brilliant green canopy. Around him spots of color flared up, very bright flowers standing out brilliantly against the green.

Up ahead was a palace, built of white marble and dark gray stone, the domed ceiling of glass in panes with gold between so that the gold resembled a spider's web. It was a massive building, but there were no windows on the first floor. It wasn't a palace, Rahkesh slowly realized, it was a fortress. The sides steep and sloped so that boulders would bounce off. It was dug into the ground so that no one could dig underneath. The windows started higher up, they were huge but they, like the ones at Akren Mountain School of Magic, had massive stone slabs above them that could be pulled down to cover the windows during an attack. The balconies looked like they could possibly be moved back inside the building itself. With the windows shut, and the balconies drawn in and shut too, the building turned into a sealed fortress. The tower windows even had the huge stone shutters. The Ateres' ancestral home had clearly been built with war in mind.

Wham! Something hit him from behind and sent Rahkesh smashing into the ground. Rolling over one shoulder he snapped out a knife. There was a low growl and he felt fur against him. Black fur. It was Nuri the young panther.

"Very nice Nuri." Came Silas approving voice from a little ways off to one side. Rahkesh showed the vampire the knife as he sheathed it, telling him without words just how close he'd been to sticking it in the cat.

"Think that's cute huh? He's not even full grown yet, someday he's going to kill someone." Rahkesh snarled.

"I told him to attack, with no claws. He is very well trained. Aren't you darling?" Nuri purred and rubbed his head against his master's knee. "See?" Rahkesh scowled at the animal. The cat had grown fast in six months, no longer the little house-cat sized cub. And he was still growing fast; Rahkesh would bet real money that Nuri would reach six feet eventually. Maybe more, he was starting to wonder if Silas hadn't fed the cat a growth potion. After all Silas was already talking about possibly trying to work bloodmagic on the cat, to give him some magical powers. Rahkesh had pointed out that vampire blood being what it was he could just mix some of it into Nuri's dinner.

Sygra reared and flared her hood as Rahkesh stood, hissing at the vampire and his cat. Rahkesh stroked her hood gently, trying to tell her not to attack without words.

"I told you not to set the cat on him." Daray was walking out the door towards them. "Nuri has been up in that tree for hours practicing pouncing so he could get you."

"Silas." Rahkesh growled.

"Sorry, but he needs practice."

"He could just practice on you."

"Not as much fun." Silas replied with a grin.

"Come in Rahkesh, it's going to rain soon." Daray said, "we'll leave cat-boy out here to pounce on all the intruders we get however many hundreds of miles from the nearest village."

"Fine, fine, ruin my fun." Silas followed them inside. Massive dark clouds were brewing outside the windows.

"Welcome, this is the ancestral castle of the Ateres family. Often as not we move it around wherever we go." Daray said as they led Rahkesh through the main entry-way, which was wide enough for five to walk side by side. The thick oriental looking carpets and massive tapestries falling down white marble walls looked like something from another age. Which, Rahkesh realized, was exactly what this place was given that it had been built maybe a thousand years ago, or even earlier.

The furniture was all solid wood pieces with heavy ornate fabrics, comfortable but massive and beautiful. Silks were in display everywhere, and the pictures on the walls hung in gold frames worth more than the artwork. The ceiling, where it wasn't stained-glass gold encrusted sky-lights, was instead covered in gilded paintings or elegant carvings with sparkling gemstones highlighting everything. Daray and Silas led him through several massive rooms and up a wide marble staircase.

"It's built to house everyone with plenty of room to spare, and to fend off any attack magical or physical." Silas explained as Rahkesh looked around at what had to be at least four levels above ground, not counting the highest of the towers.

"Grandmother is here right now, my parents will be back soon, they're off removing a bunch of vampires that needed removing. Silas's sister Sierra is around somewhere. And great uncle Saforin and aunt Tashanna." Daray said, running over the people at the palace. "There's a handful of others who come and go, you might meet them you might not."

"You'll be staying in here." Silas opened a door at the end of a hallway with a dark red, orange and blue rug that had a shine to it almost like velvet.

It was a large guest room, a bed and desk with a few chairs and fireplace. A large polar bear rug and he had his own bathroom too, with a marble bathtub. Rahkesh took Sygra's cage (minus the mice) out of a pocket and put it on the floor and enlarged it. Then he took out a box with two mice in it and dumped them in. Sygra followed, eyeing the mice hungrily.

"There's a pool on the lower level, want to go for a swim?" Silas asked from the doorway.

"Yeah sure." Rahkesh replied absently as he gazed around. The room was truly opulent, the rugs were very old and expensive and the wood on the walls was solid oak. The gilded picture frames contained real gold and the doorways had amethysts done in spirals and waves around them.

The pool turned out to be more like a massive stone hot tub. Rahkesh guessed it was about ten feet deep all around with, a ledge a foot down into the water for sitting on. There were lounge chairs and tubs of small indoor trees and tropical flowers. Water poured in out of the mouths of two golden roaring lions on the side where the pool water lapped against the wall. The room was steaming from the heat of the water and Rahkesh was very glad he no longer had to wear glasses. Nuri splashed around on the ledge, chasing the hundred or so small fish that were in the pool, who were trying to stay out of their way as the three swam

"The fish keep the pool clean by eating anything that starts to grow on the side of the pool, aside from them the water is completely filtered one every five minutes." Silas told Rahkesh, "they're also ornamental of course, magical fish." The little fish were every color of the rainbow with long trailing fins. Rahkesh dove to watch some of them working along the bottom, nipping at anything resembling algae on the stones. A low rumble of thunder shook the building.

"We get some massive storms here." Daray said, glancing up at the high ceiling. "Hopefully it won't flood again. The only thing I don't like about living in the jungle, we're also on the edges of a floodplain." Rahkesh relaxed in the warm water, watching a tropical bird of some sort flying from potted tree to potted tree, this was so much nicer than cold Britain.

"Have you two finished the next set for designs for your bloodmagics?" Rahkesh asked, he knew that the two cousins wanted to finish their sets as soon as possible, and with so many different pieces that meant that they had to work fast.

"Yes. Namach says we should wait a bit longer before finalizing anything. I tell you it will be nice to be able to spend more than a few days in the sun." Daray said, "are you done with your next set?"

"Yes, I'll complete the night vision piece in another three weeks." Rahkesh said.

"Namach thinks you're a genius you know. He's put a bet in the staff betting pool that you'll manage master level in bloodmagic, necromancy, and soul magic." Daray told him.

"How do you know that?" Rahkesh asked. Very glad to hear it, it would make getting into the higher level classes much easier.

"A young pretty vampire teacher who teaches the Herbology masters." Daray said with a smirk. Rahkesh rolled his eyes skyward and Silas shook his head.

"You did make it clear to everyone that biting the human is not acceptable?" Rahkesh asked suddenly, vaguely worried.

"Yes. Not sure if my sister was listening, and Grandmother might give it try anyway just for kicks, to see how well you can defend yourself. No need to be gentle, she's been killing for nearly two thousand years, the more damage you manage to inflict the happier she'll be. She likes a feisty opponent." Silas told him, Rahkesh mentally groaned, great, an ancient vampire who would probably attack him for fun.

"Just how does she expect me to put up much of a fight?" Rahkesh demanded.

"No clue. She's awfully violent Grandmother is." Daray said. "She insisted that we start training last year, so you can join in this week. She's a good teacher and she hasn't been beat since, ohh, 1280 A.D. or something like that. _That _was the last time she sparred with Namach you know." Rahkesh shook his head, vampires were insane. Well, he _had_ brought those tasers…


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

The vampire ducked under the kick and then blocked the knife with his own, blades ringing in the empty sparring room. Rahkesh kicked him hard in the ankle, knocking one of Daray's feet out from under him. The vampire turned his stagger into a lunge. Rahkesh caught Daray's knife across his own as the vampire nearly smashed into him.

Seeing how close they were Daray lunged for his throat. Eight months ago Rahkesh would have panicked. Now he simply took his free hand and slipped one finger up under the vampire's fangs when they were inches from his throat, and jerked upwards. Daray yelped with pain and, noticing Rahkesh's knife moving at him, collapsed under the attack. Locking his legs together the vampire spun on his hip and shoulder. Hooking his legs behind Rahkesh's knees and throwing him to the floor. Still moving with his inhuman strength the vampire sprang off the floor from his position on his side as though he was levitating. He snatched up a knife dropped earlier in the fight, and righted himself in mid air, coming to land with one knife in each hand, the blades crossed over Rahkesh's throat.

They froze, then Rahkesh smirked and put more pressure on his own two knives - the one he'd held before and the one he'd grabbed when he landed. His knives were crossed against Daray's throat. The vampire hadn't even noticed until the increased pressure broke the skin and few drops of blood appeared.

Rahkesh didn't try to throw the vampire off him; Daray was much too strong. Instead he just bent one leg and kicked at the floor while simultaneously dropping his knives onto his stomach and grabbing Daray's wrists, forcing the knives away from his throat. His kick spun him out from under the vampire sideways and he grabbed his knives again as he rolled, threw his shoulder into Daray's gut as the vampire rose, grabbed an arm, and hurled the vampire over his shoulder to the floor.

Daray being a vampire he simply twisted sideways and leaped before both feet had hit the floor. Flinging one of Rahkesh's knives away he blocked the other knife and stabbed with the second. Rahkesh dodged, grabbed the arm, and pulled Daray past him, leaping in the opposite direction to pick up his second knife. He spun and flung it. Daray ducked and Rahkesh grabbed up another knife. They had each started with four. They faced each other again, circling.

Rahkesh quickly wiped sweat from his eyes, smearing blood from one bleeding finger across his forehead in the process. It was still early morning, and it was cooler here in the stone sparring room then it was outside, but it was still hot, and they'd been at it for nearly an hour. He was starting to wish he'd worn shorts instead of the long black pants; the heat and humidity would do him in faster then the vampire could. Daray wiped blood off his palms, his bare chest and back and arms were covered in long strips of blood. The cuts and gashes from which the blood had come were long since healed. Rahkesh, being human, was not so lucky. He could feel the sting from his own set of cuts every time he moved, could feel blood dripping down his chest and back, and could feel blood weeping from a gash that was awfully close to his appendix. Fortunately it wasn't much more than skin deep.

Rahkesh sent up a prayer of thanks to whomever had originally invented bloodmagic. No matter how long or how hard he trained, without his added stamina, strength, and speed he would never have had a chance of matching any vampire in a nonmagical fight.

Something landed on his head and sank its teeth into his ear, Satan, Daray's pet vampire bat. Rahkesh tried to grab the creature and throw it off. The momentary loss of attention was what Daray had been hoping for. Tossing both knives aside he leaped forward and folded into a tackle. Rahkesh never saw it coming. At the same time the vampire hit him Daray struck also with his hands, hitting his forearms in the spot that made his fingers go numb, Rahkesh dropped both knives and kneed Daray under the chin hard enough that had the vampire not been clenching his jaws he might have bitten his tongue off.

Aware that if the vampire managed to land on him the fight would be over Rahkesh straightened himself out and began to roll as fast as he could. Daray missed him by inches as he lunged at the spot where Rahkesh should have been. Rahkesh planted one foot on the floor and drove off of it, his elbow smashed into Daray's face and his weight knocked the vampire off balance. Daray fell, but pulled Rahkesh off his feet with him. Rahkesh rolled over the vampire, sinking his other elbow into Daray's stomach, and rolled to his feet.

Wham! Silas hit him out of nowhere. Rahkesh went down hard, but he managed to knock Silas's hand away from his neck, rolled the vampire down beside him and placed his thumb against the inside corner of the vampire's eye. The threat of having an eye removed would normally have meant he'd won, but Daray got there a half second later with one of the eight knives against Rahkesh's throat.

"Two against one." Rahkesh snarled, "I thought you had to help your sister rearrange furniture today?" Silas shrugged as he got up.

"We're taking a break."

"And what was it with calling in the bat?" Rahkesh asked. The fire-breathing vampire bat had landed in Daray's hands.

"You never said we _couldn't_ call on our pets." The vampire smirked. Rahkesh made a mental note to bring Sygra next time. "You lose." Rahkesh shook his head and reached down to his calves; strapped to his legs against his calves were his tasers. He brought them both up so fast neither vampire had the time to dodge.

Rahkesh shrugged one shoulder, and stretched, searching for torn muscles. He ached all over but there was no real damage, as he had many times Rahkesh mentally thanked the combat teachers for making them learn how to fall correctly before anything else. As Rahkesh rose to smirk at the vampires lying on the floor the door was pushed open by a black furred nose. Nuri appeared in the doorway and bounded over to Silas and began nuzzling his face. Silas's eyes opened, and then snapped shut as Nuri placed a paw on his face and stood on him so he could sniff at the mark where the taser had caught Silas on the shoulder.

"Nuri, geroff me." The cub backed up a bit. Several seconds later Silas rolled over and staggered to his feet. A moment later Daray did the same.

"If you can call out a bat and your cousin, I can use my tasers." Rahkesh said, smirking at the two wincing vampires. Someone started laughing and the three turned to look.

A tall female vampire was standing in the doorway laughing. Dark hair, gold flecked eyes and skin rather like Daray's, looking a little tan instead of the stereotypical corpse-white. Rahkesh looked at the other two for a name.

"So this is your friend hm?" The laughing vampire asked.

"Yes. Rahkesh this is our grandmother Cyala Ateres, grandmother this is Rahkesh Asmodaeus." Daray said.

"Wonderful to meet you." Rahkesh said with a respectful nod as he started picking up the knives.

"And you, with a few years more practice young human you might just be a match for any vampire." Cyala said. "Daray said you were obsessed with electrocuting people," she added eyeing the tasers, "goodness knows these two could use a bout of electrocution regularly. Do that again will you?"

"Cyala!" Both vampires leaped away from Rahkesh looking vaguely like frightened deer. Cyala started laughing again.

"Silas your sister asked me to tell you that she needs your help again." Silas groaned. "And then you both have lessons later, guest or not. You're welcome to join in." Cyala added to Rahkesh, "They're horribly behind. Hand to hand combat tonight boys." Rahkesh could have sworn one of the two whimpered. "Now go and help you sister Silas." Silas turned and looked at the other two pleadingly.

"Help me?" Silas asked. "There's got to be some way to get out of this." Daray shook his head.

"No, your sister's got ten more years of practice than any of us. I don't feel like getting both arms broken again." Daray said. Rahkesh raised an eyebrow wondering about that story.

"How about we help you finish moving this stuff, it'll go faster with four than with two." Rahkesh said, he put the knives back into the sheaths along the walls and followed to two vampires out the door. Casting minor healing spells on himself, followed by a cleaning spell to get rid of the drying blood. He was quite grateful for a break, humans weren't meant to take that kind of fighting continuously. Thank Merlin for magic, otherwise he would have been black and blue for weeks.

"The problem is that the furniture from that vault is enchanted so you can't use magic to move it around. Everything has to be done by hand." Silas said, opening a door to another corridor. There were several couches and armchairs, and a few tables, scattered around a stone vault door on one side of the hallway. "We're moving stuff from that vault to another one. The enchantments on the walls of that vault need to be repaired."

Sierra looked a lot like her brother, not short but not especially tall either. She was a beautiful vampire with bright blue eyes and brown blond hair. She waved Dray and Rahkesh towards a massive wooden table without a word and stalked across the room to grab Silas by the ear.

"You were supposed to be helping me here. Brother dearest do I really have to give your schoolmates those photographs? I'm sure they'd find them most amusing." She hissed at him. Daray tapped his ear and tilted his head towards a footstool. Rahkesh nodded and paused to clear things out of their way. Delaying so they could listen in.

"How did you get those anyway? OW! Okay okay."

"Well?"

"Er, no no, not necessary at all, hehe, um what else do we need to move?" A very pink Silas asked, carefully pulling away out of reach, rubbing his ear. Sierra rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Everything idiot, everything. And it is _your_ fault." She turned to Daray and Rahkesh who were just picking up the table. "He's the one who managed to remove the vaults protective spells you know. And who are you?"

"The human I told you was coming over for a week. Rahkesh meet Sierra." Silas said shortly, lifting an armchair and beginning to carry it out of the vault.

"Ah, sorry about that, that you have to go to school with this monster." She said, nodding towards her younger brother.

"Easy sister, I might just sic Nuri on you." Silas retorted, "and ignore her, she's the real monster." Rahkesh decided it was best not to reply as the two started arguing.

"Are they always like that?" He asked Daray.

"No. Well not always. Put the table over in the corner. It's just that they're always blackmailing each other, and now Silas has had Nuri pouncing on everyone from treetops and staircases." Daray replied. Setting the table down they went back for another.

"How did you manage to remove the protection wards?" Rahkesh asked, Silas shrugged as he moved past, helping his sister move a couch.

"They were dueling," Daray answered when neither sibling did, "and Silas managed to utterly mangle a tickling charm and the resultant magical explosion brought down the enchantments."

"A _tickling charm?_" Rahkesh asked, "I wasn't aware they had any kind destructive power."

"They don't." Silas muttered, turning a little pink at the snickers from the other three.

XXXX

Cyala grabbed his leg and flipped him to the ground, slamming a fist into his kidney as he went down. Rahkesh groaned and stayed down. Cyala backed off long enough for him to get up. The ancient matriarch smirked at the three young males who were all looking a little worse for wear. The so-called lessons seemed to be more about ignoring pain than anything else. She'd beaten all of them at once in about two minutes.

"You must have done some sort of bloodmagic." Cyala observed as Rahkesh bounded back to his feet and attacked again. "There's now way you're keeping up so well without it."

"Yeah, it's necessary in a school where you wind up fighting vampires and werewolves." Rahkesh said, and ducked an attack and dodged out of the way of another. "Otherwise they'll just walk all over you."

Even with the bloodmagic there was no way he was going to be able to outdo her in an attack, so he would have to dodge and hope for an opening at some point. Only she was faster than he was. Cyala picked Silas up and slammed him over her shoulder into the floor. Daray leaped at her from behind and she caught his fist without turning around and twisted his arms until he'd spun around and tripped. _And_ she was telepathic. Nope, not a chance at winning this. Rahkesh tried the move he'd invented from the twins break dancing lessons and dove for the ground, using his falling momentum to spin himself around on his back and lash out. Both legs hit her behind the knees and Cyala fell, slamming a fist into the side of his head so hard Rahkesh nearly blacked out. But Silas had taken the momentary opening and caught her in the gut with a kick as she rose. Cyala ignored it and locked one hand around his throat and pulled his head forward, hitting him over the back of the neck. Silas blacked out.

Five minutes later Cyala finally called a halt. Silas was awake again and Daray was rotating one ankle, wincing as bones snapped back into place. Rahkesh cast healing spells on his own injuries and took the moment to get a drink from the muggle water cooler the vampires kept in the sparring room. Between the earlier fight with Daray and then this he was starting to feel vaguely pulverized. Perhaps tomorrow he'd take a break from the fighting and work on wandless magic or potions instead.

"Give it a thousand years or so kids, and you might manage to bruise me." Cyala said cheerfully.

"Sure granny." Daray muttered. Cyala cuffed him over the head.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me granny! I'm only twenty-eight hundred years old!" She snapped, Daray raised both hands to block another slap.

Rahkesh started laughing, he couldn't help it. Cyala turned and shot him an angry glare.

"Enough of that." Rahkesh snickered and shrugged. Cyala snorted and shook her head. "Fine. You did well enough for a beginner human, and what was that move?" She asked.

"Break dancing. Some friends taught me and I incorporated it into fighting." Rahkesh explained. Cyala beamed.

"Excellent idea. The muggles have instructional videos on break dancing don't they? I'll have to get some." This was accompanied by greatly distressed looks from her two grandsons. Who both then turned to scowl at Rahkesh. The sparring room door opened and Sierra came in. Cyala returned to the middle of the floor and Daray and Silas followed.

With Sierra on their side the defeat wasn't quite as humiliating. Rahkesh saw at once why Daray was cautious about angering Silas older sister. Sierra was an extraordinarily talented fighter. She was absolutely relentless, even if she didn't have her grandmother's experience, strength or speed. She might only be a few years older but Sierra seemed to have an innate ability that put her actual skill well beyond her years.

The four of them surrounded Cyala, she attacked Silas and managed to throw him at Daray, sending both of them into a heap. Rahkesh moved in just fast enough to connect solidly with a kick aimed at his head.

Ow.

Rahkesh opened his eyes and groaned. He was lying on the floor, Daray was running a charm over his skull to show any damage.

"Well no apparent skull fractures." The vampire said cheerfully. That charm was getting awfully close to his forehead, Rahkesh leaned forward, effectively snapping the charm and sat up.

"Easy, lie back, we need to finished that spell first." Sierra told him.

"Nah, actually I feel just fine." Rahkesh said, rubbing the left side of his head and feigning surprise. Fake skin or not that charm would show the hidden scar. And he didn't need anyone finding out about that. Silas helped him to his feet and he moved away to watch the rest of the fight. Which was almost pathetically short. Cyala attacked the second he was out of range and proceeded to thrash the other three with astounding ease.

Once that fight was over Daray and Silas began working through an attack and block series of katas that their grandmother assigned while Rahkesh taught Sierra and Cyala the attack he'd invented.

Rahkesh was surprised to find that the evening meal was entirely humanl food; he'd been expected to be the only one eating. Cyala and Sierra joined them but Rahkesh hadn't seen any sign of the other members of the extended family. Daray's parents were off killing a rogue vampire who had created a band of some forty new vampires as his followers. Once they were done with him they had to hunt down each of his followers. Apparently this happened frequently enough that the city masters knew to contact Elara and Sabian Ateres whenever they found such a group. The Ateres family assassins were kept busy all over the world. It was also the secret to the family's power, they didn't just kill the vampires they hunted down; they drank all of their blood first. The ferocious family matriarch had been one of the assassins years ago and now looked after the family estates and trained the young.

A bat flew in the special bat door in the ceiling and landed on the perch beside Cyala's chair. She took the letter from its backpack and handed it to Daray.

"Aunt Vera is sending an important package by courier. We're to meet him in the town tomorrow evening. At the dock." He read.

"Good, we can all three go." Silas said, "and while we're there I'd like to go hunting, it's been weeks since we had any human blood." He raised an eyebrow at Rahkesh who shrugged.

"I don't mind." Rahkesh said, a trip sounded excellent, and he wasn't likely to acquire any more bruises this way. "Where's the nearest town?" The castle was about as remote as it was possible to get.

"The town he's talking about is where a highway gets close to the river. We'll go by boat, it's a few hundred miles normally but we have another boat downriver and we can portkey to that." Silas said. Rahkesh nodded, a long boat trip down a jungle river. Wow, now that sounded like a nice way to spend a day.

"It's still a long trip so I think we'll stay over night there. There're a few tours that stop there since it is just about along the highway and there's several taverns and inns." Daray said.

"Wonder what she's sending?" Silas asked, looking over the letter again, "she doesn't say."

"Probably something her targets owned that she felt like taking. If you're going to kill them you might as well." Daray said at Rahkesh's raised eyebrow. "Occasionally these rogues will be wizards and they'll have a few magical artifacts around." Rahkesh nodded.

There were two types of vampires, the ones who could use wands and magic and those that could only do the most basic vampire magics such as a little telepathy, hypnosis with their eyes, and a tiny bit of telekinesis. Those were the ones that didn't like being ruled by the more powerful vampires, who were always magical, and they were also the unstable ones who tended to go insane. They were the ones who started vast cults and made dozens of new vampires from adult humans. But, occasionally, there would be magical vampires who did that as well. The Ateres family clearly had no qualms about stealing the valuable belongings of those they killed whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Rahkesh didn't much approve of that but he decided not to make an issue of it. Anyone who made dozens of new vampires would have been told that doing so would bring down the wrath of the rulers of the vampire world. By creating so many new vampires anyways they were challenging the Ateres family assassins and the city masters, so they could expect harsh retribution.

XXX

The boat turned out to be a long lightweight canoe with oars and a shallow motor. Daray took the motor while Silas pointed out the plants and animals to Rahkesh. Sygra was wound around his neck and shoulders, tongue flickering out to smell the air. Daray's pet bat was tucked inside the small backpack Daray was wearing. Having gotten into a serious fight with another bat Daray had decided that Satan needed a little time off from the messenger bats they kept at the castle. And, over Silas protests, Nuri sprawled on the bench beside them, looking ahead eagerly like a dog would while trailing one paw over the side of the canoe into the water.

Silas had intended to leave him behind, since towns were not the place for panthers. The cub had looked so dejected and hurt when they tried to leave without him that Silas had reached down to pat him as they took the portkey. The crafty young panther knew about portkeys, and promptly bit Silas's pant leg, and subsequently ended up with them, miles from the castle. He then ran away and refused to be caught. Much to the shock of all three he'd even managed to shake off summoning charms. And so he had to come with them.

The river itself had been enchanted so that the parts that were too shallow could simply be skipped while the boat had a levitation device built in for crossing fallen trees.

"That was a capybara." Silas said as something darted from the riverbank into the trees. Nuri's ears twitched and he rolled one eye open to watch the creature, and then went back to his nap. Not hungry enough to get excited over a capybara, which was what Silas was teaching him to hunt.

"You can use their toenails in one of the skin-cancer curing potions." Rahkesh commented, deciding that he would have to find the time for an ingredient-gathering trip. The potions teacher would be delighted, and he liked the bald older man who taught potions. A congenial old man who truly loved experimenting with mixing things just to see what happened. He was also a bit of a genius, having invented hundreds of potions. Rahkesh didn't want to know what his cooking was like though. Professor Strawlime's inventions were all of the highly deadly or painful nature. Before becoming a teacher he had designed potions and tested them on muggle criminals that he would capture. He figured that no one was going to care if a child rapist ended up having his skin melted off and his stomach and intestines burned to ash by an experimental potion.

The thick dark green growth ran right down to the water in many places. Where the river widened out there were occasional small islands with a few trees and wet grasses. Everything was green and had a rich earthy smell. They sped along for several hours, enjoying the myriad of creatures and plants.

"Squirrel monkey's" Silas said as two shapes leaped between the trees.

_Weird. _Sygra hissed softly in Rahkesh's ear. The black cobra was keeping up a running commentary of her opinion of everything.

"There's a sloth, and those white birds are egrets. The colorful ones are scarlet macaws." Silas said.

_They smell odd. Everything smells strange here. Those birds are disturbingly colorful, showoffs._ Rahkesh bit his lip trying not to laugh.

"Their feathers are used for something aren't they?"

"Feather and stone magic." Daray agreed, "only you can't kill the bird when getting the feather or it won't work." Something lunged out of the water and dragged a bird that had been wading around a patch of grasses and short trees into the water. "Ah, that was a caiman."

_Meat eaters in the water. You aren't planning on swimming are you? _

A bird with a massive bill flew by, "that was a Toucan."

_Awfully top heavy. Can they even stand upright without falling over face first? How do they fly without smashing into the ground?_

They eventually began to see a few other boats with people fishing, and a few tour boats.

_Why do those humans smell so strange?_

_It's called bug repellent, to keep insects away._ Rahkesh hissed softly, since neither vampire was watching and couldn't hear over the chatter of tourists and the sound of boat motors.

_Why would you want to? I bet they've got some big tasty insects here._

_Humans don't eat insects. And a lot of them are venomous. Be careful what you hunt okay?_

_I'm more venomous then they are. But I won't eat them. The people reek._

Silas shrunk Nuri, and put the tiny panther into a box in his pocket. Nuri hadn't looked at all happy about that. They pulled up to a reserved dock a few yards away from all the rest and followed a boardwalk through some trees to the town. A man was sitting on a bench eating a sandwich as they walked out of the trees. Silas and Rahkesh moved over to stand beside a trash can, they and it effectively blocked anyone's view and Daray bent down and whispered something to the man. He then picked up the wooden crate that sat tucked in the grass and half-grown trees behind the bench. He took the crate to the boat and then came back; in between the man finished his sandwich and left.

"Your courier?"

"Yes, we use humans." Daray said. "There's an inn near the docks, we'll get rooms there." They got three rooms next to each other and met outside, watching as a few tour groups moved in. Nuri had been brought back to normal size and strictly ordered to stay in the room, and make no noise, or else. Silas had left he closet door open, and placed a notice me not charm on the bottom space, which he had emptied. A place for the panther cub to hide if someone came in.

Sygra had also been left behind in a cage. She had been tired after the boat ride full of fascinating sights and smells. Satan had flown off to find his own dinner, probably the ear of someone who'd been sleeping with the window open.

The tour groups came mostly in fifteen person vans; very few tour buses came around here since a group of natives had taken to getting poisonous snakes inside them.

"Where _does_ she think she is?" Silas asked, watching as one girl walked past with the shortest skirt Rahkesh had ever seen, and white tank top, and flip-flops.

"I don't know, but she's in that group that just signed up for a dinner on the river. I bet that shirt gets see-through when wet, and those flip-flops won't provide much protection from the stuff on the river bottom. Must not be worried at all about flipping over." Daray added.

"Those flip flops don't provide much protection from the puddles, and those have stuff in them you don't want on your skin." Silas said. "There are parasites that burrow in through your flesh and other things of that nature. You won't believe the stuff the tourists think passes for appropriate jungle-wear." They had told Rahkesh in advance to wear boots. Given the recent rains sneakers wouldn't cut it.

"Stupid tourists," Daray muttered, "but they make awfully good prey. That place wasn't here last summer." He added, pointing to a bar with live music and a small restaurant attached to the side. It was shabby on the outside, but it had the only neon sign in town. It also had two entrances, one to the restaurant and another to the bar. As if it was trying to pass itself off as a family restaurant and a bar simultaneously, and doing a very poor job of the former. "Lets try there; the tourists seem to be headed that way."

"How do you guys hunt?" Rahkesh asked curiously. He had some ideas, seeing as how both vampires had changed after they arrived. Silas in a white sleeveless top, black pants and fingerless mesh gloves made from a dark colored metal that covered his forearms. Daray was wearing black pants, a sleeveless black leather top, and black leather bracers on his forearms. Long sleeves were too hot and wand holsters to hard to hide, even if they were invisible. Instead the wands, and two small knives, were strapped against the forearms where they could be quickly and easily drawn. Taking their advice Rahkesh had worn the boots and black pants with a sleeveless very dark gold/brown leather top with black and dark green studs, and black leather arm guards. He could feel his wand against his skin but it was invisible and from the outside you couldn't feel it was there. He also had tasers in his boots, the vampires had favored throwing stars and knives.

"Seduce, then bite." Silas said, "it's pretty simple. A vampire can control what the victim feels when they bite them and a little telepathy removes any suspicions." Rahkesh blinked, Silas had slipped into an accent he'd never heard.

"A little too Spanish Silas." Daray said.

"Sorry, gets confusing after a while, switching countries as we do traveling with grandmother." Silas said, in something that Rahkesh recognized as being very much Australian. Though it still seemed just a bit off.

"We spent our childhood in Australia." Daray reminded Rahkesh as he also developed an Australian accent. "And hunting is really very simple. Humans tend to naturally find vampires mesmerizing when we're hunting them. And these tourists make it real easy. Lets go, I'm hungry" Daray said, leading them to the bar.

Inside the lights were red and purple, the small band was on a stage at the far end, the bar along the far part of the right wall, there were a few booths along the walls, and a doorway into the back and another into the small restaurant on the left. There were people dancing on the floor, packed into the place like sardines. Rahkesh watched with interest as the two vampires scanned the crowd. If they chose someone who was on drugs or drunk the effects of that would transfer in the blood to the vampire, so they probably to avoid that, vampire's made dangerous drunks.

"Ah, young, and stupid. A good start." Daray said, picking out a girl from one of the tour groups who looked to be about sixteen.

"Stupid?" Rahkesh asked, she looked quite pretty. Daray had already left, somehow no one bumped into him as he moved through the crowd. He slipped up behind the girl and placed a hand on her hip, smiling down at her when she turned to look at him. "Stupid?" Rahkesh asked again, turning to Silas.

"Vampires have unusual tastes. Most of us hate those horrid perfumes and hair sprays, makes me nauseas. I mean how can anyone hope to stay hidden with those smells? Or how is anyone supposed to know what their blood will be like? With all of that scented stuff you have to taste to find out, better to just make it obvious than layer on that gunk." Silas explained with a wrinkled nose. Rahkesh looked at him for a moment, bemused, and then let it pass off as another vampire thing. Clearly their definition of stupid was different than his.

"Exactly how many do you plan of feeding from?

"Don't know. Daray usually picks out six or seven and takes a little blood from each. Oh, nice." Silas said, perking up. A set of four young women had just entered, looking around rather nervously.

"Four?"

"Feed on three, bed the fourth." Silas said simply, and moved off in their direction. Rahkesh shook his head in amusement and hoped the vampire would remember silencing charms. The inn seemed to have very thin walls. He moved over to the door that led to the restaurant, he was hungry and he didn't eat blood. There was a small set of tables, only a dozen of them. Looking around Rahkesh decided he didn't feel like eating alone. Spying a set of blonde twins who were eyeing a posted menu while they danced he moved in behind one of them and slipped an arm around her waist.

An hour later they had finished dinner and moved back into the bar with dessert. The two girls were with a tour group from the United States, North Dakota, a country Rahkesh had never been to and state which Rahkesh hadn't known was even inhabited. They seemed to adore his English accent, which he had stopped disguising for that reason.

Glancing at the door while one of the girls was telling a story she had already told once, about a skiing accident on vacation in Vermont, Rahkesh stiffened as he saw someone he was sure was a vampire enter. He was getting very good at sensing vampires, and after six months of practice he was even picking up a bit of magical telepathy. Not enough for thoughts but enough to turn and pressure Silas mind. The vampire removed his fangs from the throat of the girl who had her back pressed against him; he ran his tongue over her neck to heal the bites, apparently ignoring everything. But Rahkesh could sense Silas, and Daray too, reaching out a bit to sense the newcomer. The two vampires exchanged a look, and then Silas's mental presence vanished abruptly. Closing himself off entirely Silas moved the girl deeper into the dancing crowd, hiding any stray sing of his presence in the human crowd, and turned the girl so that he could look over her at the door.

Daray opened his own mind, letting his telepathic presence flood the room, the new vampire's head whipped around as though he'd been slapped. Rahkesh realized that he was reaching out far enough to be sensed and drew back to observe. The new vampire moved into the room and leaned against one of the pillars holding the ceiling up. His eyes fixed on a sign of some sort above Daray's head. He opened his mind and Rahkesh dimly felt another vampiric presence fill the room. Daray ignored it, still drinking from the neck of the girl sitting in his lap. Not the same "stupid" one as before, both vampires had drunk from several female tourists. His ignoring the newcomer put him in a position of power, briefly forcing the stranger to wait until he was finished. Then he pulled her up and back out onto the floor. They danced in close to the strange vampire, Silas maneuvered around behind him.

Then the cousins closed in, Silas opened his mouth a bit and clicked his fang against his lower tooth, a sound so soft only a vampire would hear, and would know it for what it was. Simultaneously he lifted a hand in a motion that went with the dancing, only now Rahkesh caught a tiny glint from the tiny knife hidden in his palm. He dragged the knife quickly across the back of the strange vampire's neck. Then drew away, turning to watch and to attack if need be. The girl he was dancing with did not notice a thing.

Now as the stranger leaned forward a bit, after feeling the knife, and Daray had his turn. He turned with the girl he was dancing with and moved one leg, showing off the knife strapped in his boot. He then looked straight into the vampire's eyes and Rahkesh saw his eyes glow briefly as a wave of telepathy swamped the stranger, who snapped his eyes shut to avoid the worst of it. When his eyes closed Daray spun into him and slid his hand, with a knife in it, along the newcomer's throat. Then he too drew back to watch.

The new vampire titled his head to one side, then closed down his own presence and turned to look around as though searching for something. Daray leaned down to whisper to the girl, who frowned, then smiled and nodded, and headed off to the bar. Daray looked around too, also as though he was looking for something. The hostility in the room from the telepathy vanished.

Sensing somehow that they were looking for an empty booth Rahkesh sent a quick telepathic pulse aimed at Daray, who swung around to look at him, Rahkesh tilted his head and Daray noticed the empty booth behind the one Rahkesh and the blond twins were in.

The two vampires sat down behind him, the stranger on the other side of the wall at his back. Rahkesh listened in on their conversation as the other twin started on her side of the ski accident story.

"Uncle Grath, you weren't due back for five days." Daray said warmly. Rahkesh blinked, _Uncle_?

"I finished early. As it turned out the master of Tokyo overestimated the number of vampires that rogue had created. Nicely done by the way, I never sensed Silas, and your telepathy has improved." The other vampire said in a deep rich voice. Rahkesh relaxed, okay, it had all been practice. Not unusual with this family.

"You're staying in town tonight?"

"No. But I saw the package in the boat as I was getting the port key and thought I'd take it back with me." Grath said.

"Fine, we'll be back tomorrow, we're taking the boat." Grath nodded and left the bar. The girl came back now carrying two drinks and sat down with Daray. Apparently not noticing the other man at all.

XXX

Rahkesh woke suddenly, his training at Akren causing him to be completely awake and ready for a fight instantly. It was not long after dawn, the curtains shut out most of the light. There was nothing in the room, just the sound of the twins breathing. No one was there. What had awakened him? He opened his mind a bit, and felt a vague telepathic nudge. The vampires. Standing, careful not to wake the two girls, he transfigured a robe and threw it on. Daray was outside the door. Fully dressed and looking anxious.

"We have to leave soon, there's a major, major, storm coming up fast. I feel a flood coming, a really bad one, and I'm worried about getting out of town. We're leaving now." The vampire vanished down the hallway. Rahkesh dressed quickly in the same clothes he'd worn the night before, and then wrote a quick note for the sleeping girls.

_Sygra. There's a bad storm coming, we're gong to try to get back to the castle before it gets here._ The snake stirred and nodded.

_I won't get wet?_

_I can't say. I can place a water repelling charm on you if necessary._

_Okay_

Touching the tiny black earring he always wore he opened it. The trunk fell onto the floor, no bigger then a pinhead, and then it expanded. Rahkesh flipped it open and found what he was looking for. Transfiguring the shapes of two chocolate frogs in chocolate kisses he poured a few drops of potions onto them and wrapped them with transfigured foil. Then he placed a special charm designed to make people strongly notice things on them. The potions were trustworthiness and believability potions. Hopefully they would help the girls explain their absence to their chaperones, and make their guardians believe them. Then he set the alarm clock for ten minutes, put the trunk back in the earring, put a do not disturb sign on the door, grabbed the room key, and flew down the stairs.

The vampires had the boat untied and Rahkesh jumped in. They took off up the river as fast as the motor would go. Despite the rising sun the sky was turning dark and black clouds were moving in. The wind picked up and the air smelled like rain.

Nuri kept looking up, and staring around, ears twitching nervously. He wouldn't stay still, but kept pacing, growling occasionally.

They had gotten a head start, and with the motor enchanted for speed they were almost going fast enough to keep ahead of it. Almost.

"I would have taken the emergency portkey, but Uncle Grath took it last night." Daray said, glancing at the clouds, which were now above them.

They had been fleeing before the storm for four hours when they looked up to see that they didn't have a chance of outrunning it. The first droplets hit slowly, and then the skies opened up. Rahkesh cast a hurried water repelling spell on Sygra, who was back on his shoulders. Then transfigured a hood and pulled it over his head. It didn't do him any good, not against this.

_Fascinating rain._ Sygra muttered, sounding not the least bit fascinated and more than a little unhappy.

It wasn't rain; it was several hundred cubic meters of water being dumped on them. Rahkesh had never seen it rain so hard. Never. Hadn't known it could rain like this. An hour later and he and Silas were taking turned magically throwing the water out of the canoe.

"This storm is a strange one. They usually don't come from that direction. It's already rained far up river. The storm is moving down the river, raining as it goes, we're in for a major flood." Daray said. Indeed, the river was rising fast. Small islands that had been visible before were underwater now, with only the trees showing. It came as a shock to notice that the water was nearly two meters higher on the banks then it had been. The pouring rain made it hard to see what was ahead of them, Rahkesh could hardly tell water from river bank.

"Never seen a storm do that, it came from the wrong direction." Daray was muttering. "And I've never seen this river rise so fast." Suddenly through the downpour a fallen tree appeared, hurtling towards them through the floodwaters. Silas tapped the levitation device; the propeller cleared the tree by inches. The tree rolled past them. Fallen trees, formerly still attached a bit to the bank, were now being washed into the river. They went flying past, the river's current had picked up to phenomenal speeds. Had the boat not been so heavily enchanted they would never have bee able to go against the current.

"Remember that spot, where an incoming tributary was blocked by a small dam the natives built, to build a pond" Silas said suddenly. Daray's eyes went wide.

"Oh crap." He whispered, "it'll break."

A sudden crunching sound reverberated through the forest, confirming Silas fears. Sure enough seconds later a wave of water came racing down the river towards them. Riding on the front of the wave was the remains of the dam, massive trees and boulders.

_Uh master? That looks painful._

"We are going for a swim!" Daray called. "I'll levitate us over the front wave…what is THAT?"

Shielding their eyes against the falling water the three stared at the wave. Before them something was rolling out of the water. The wave seemed to part momentarily, driving whatever it was down the narrowed waterway straight at them. A huge boulder, a massive rock as big as a large house. Squinting through the rain Rahkesh saw that it runes carved on it.

Up ahead the narrowed river between its steep banks narrowed even further between two boulders. The oncoming wave, with the mansion sized rock in the lead, struck the two boulders. And the smashed dam got stuck. The large boulder couldn't pass between the two buried in the river, and the dam was caught across it.

Daray pulled them back, putting all their weight in the back of the boat. Then he pushed the propellers as deep into the water as he could. Then he hit the levitation device. It only worked for a few feet but it was enough. The propellers forced the boat clear out of the water, then the levitation device raised them just high enough to slam into one of the small boulders, and skid across the top of it. Sygra wrapped herself tightly around his neck. Rahkesh braced, suddenly understanding Daray's plan.

Both vampires leaped out onto the largest rock, Rahkesh caught a stuck tree and crawled along it to join them. Nuri, being a cat the fastest and best balanced, simply leaped from rock to rock to tree to the top of the boulder. The boat flew past the obstructions, and was promptly dragged under by the second part of the broken dam. Drenched, gasping, and shaking, the three huddled on top of the rock, Nuri pressed against Silas.

_Great, I'm wet, you're wet, it's still raining, and we're stuck on this rock._ Sygra sighed.

"Okay, this just sucks." Silas said, eloquently summing up the situation. The boulder shifted, and settled again.

"Stay here or get to shore?" Daray asked, rubbing an injured hand.

"Get to shore, we don't know how long this rock will stay here." Rahkesh said, "we can levitate each other that far easily."

Daray moved to stand, and, unthinking, placed his still bleeding hand onto one of the carved runes…a rune carved in the shape of a handprint.

"DARAY MOVE!" Rahkesh bellowed. Too late. A thunderclap boomed around them, and then everything went black.

XXX

There was light. Why couldn't he see? Ow. Something hurt. Everything hurt. Rahkesh's eyes snapped open and he grew a gasp. And froze.

There was sunlight.

He wasn't wet.

What about the flood?

Blood, a carved handprint, oh damn.

His vision cleared of the spots and he looked around. Daray, Silas, Sygra, Satan, and Nuri were lying beside him. They were on a rock. The runes were the same as the boulder, but that had been a boulder. They were on flat ground. It was _sunny,_ it wasn't raining.

He looked around, and realized that they were on flat ground, in the middle of a circle of standing stones. And there were people standing beyond that ring of stones. Watching then, and whispering.

The first tingles of fear beginning Rahkesh realized that these weren't any people he'd seen along the river. They were wearing white robes, gold ornaments, and colored feathers. Several of them were holding staffs. A few were wearing thick garments made from sort of animal hide, and those ones were armed. He could see weapons made from a strange metal.

_That did not feel good. Where are we? What happened? Not that I mind being dry. _

Sygra slid up his arm and wrapped herself around his neck again. Nuri nudged Silas awake. Daray sat up and looked around. Then checked in the vampire bat, who coughed up a puff of steam and fire, then flew onto Daray's shoulder and hung from the seam of the sleeveless leather top.

Rahkesh touched his ear, and felt the earring, which currently held his trunk, cloak, and broom was still there, unharmed by whatever had happened. That was reassuring, with it he was fine anywhere.

"Oh. We are _so_ not in Kansas anymore." Silas whispered.

They all stood and looked around again. It was early evening, it had been early afternoon. Now they could see that they were on a flat area of bare rock. On a massive flat area right on a mountainside. A little ways away, set back against the trees, was a city.

A massive city built into the forest and mountainside. There hadn't been any mountains where they were before…

The city was carved from a sand and white colored rock, dozens of levels and windows. Wide streets ran between the buildings. People moved about, dressed in clothing of a style Rahkesh didn't know. Silk drapes fluttered over the widows. The rain forest crowded around the massive city, plants grew in the middle of it in gardens in the streets, the streets widening so that people could move around them.

_This place smells very different, the air is clearer. _Sygra commented in his ear.

Far away he saw the treetops drop down as the slope of the mountainside continued. A massive mountain range towered above them; they were placed out before the mountains. Safe from avalanches by the distance, but very high up. They were even above one layer of clouds, or so it seemed. The snow capped mountains above, the rainforest stretched out below.

"What happened?" Silas whispered.

"Perhaps we should ask them." Rahkesh said, nodding towards those watching them. At that moment two women and two men pulled away from the others and walked to the stones. There they each touched one of the four largest rocks, and began moving their hands as though drawing runes. The rocks began to glow. Then beams of light shot out, connecting the circle of stones. Rahkesh closed his eyes and pictured the stones and the glow in his mind, then opened his senses, immediately he was swamped by the two vampires, he "rapped" hard on their presence, and felt them both close themselves off to let him work. He felt the vague presence of the people outside the circle ignoring them he searched for the magic in the stones, and could feel runes as though they were being drawn onto him. A slight shock, that then became a continuous electrical current flew across his senses. He opened his eyes.

Abruptly the light faded and the four people stepped into the circle of stone, cautiously approaching them.

"Rune magic, that was a simple ward against anything entering or leaving the circle. Not particularly advanced, but it would give you one nasty shock." Rahkesh said approvingly.

"Nasty shock. Normal person translation: electrocution. Your kind of people Rahkesh." Daray said dryly.

"They seem a little frightened." Silas observed. They did look like they were trying to hide nervousness.

_They are nervous, but not fearful._ Sygra hissed. _They are very curious._

"Well we just appeared out of no where on the outskirts of their city." Rahkesh pointed out.

"I don't think that we were so unexpected. Look at how they're dressed. The people in the city don't seem to be dressed that well. And the cracks in the rock aren't growing grass, its been kept clean." Daray observed. The group went silent as the four stopped a good distance away. Two men and two women, all four carrying long staffs made from a black wood he'd never seen before. The staffs were decorated lavishly with gold and silver and copper and colored feathers. The metals had been melted and then dripped onto the staffs so that gold droplets ran down the staffs, silver ran upwards, and copper around. The feathers were tied to both ends, attached to the strings in an order that probably had some meaning in feather magic.

The four people bowed, and then straightened, the three did the same, and then watched them. Finally Rahkesh stepped forward and walked up to them. Stopping at a distance just far enough to not threaten. They couldn't possibly speak English. But they needed to make it plain that they spoke different languages, and then establish some form of communication.

"Hello." He said simply with a smile and nod. Instantly the group beyond the stones began to chatter away in some language. Rahkesh looked back at the other two. Both shrugged and walked up to stand beside him. One of the women, the one with gray hair that was starting to turn white, spoke two words, and then smiled at them. She pointed at the young panther and looked at them, and raised an eyebrow. Silas knelt and pulled Nuri into his arms. He patted the panther, and then stood. The woman nodded.

One of the two men, the blond one, spoke a few sentences. Another person brought a rope from the group standing beyond the stones. The woman handed it to Silas, and signaled that he should tie it around Nuri's neck as a leash.

Silas took the rope, examined it, and then handed it back. He put down the small bag he'd had on his back and fumbled in it. Rahkesh noticed him conjure something silently with the wand strapped to his arm. The magic hidden inside the bag. He pulled out a black collar that appeared to be padded, and a very long black leash.

Nuri whined, and then growled, but permitted the collar and leash.

"I trained him to not mind, in case it was ever needed." Silas explained quickly. Then he stroked Nuri and stood. The woman nodded approvingly.

The four beckoned them forward and they followed them to the group, now silent, waiting beyond the stones.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The men and women carrying weapons moved ahead of them, leading the way into the city, parting the crowds as they went. The four who had greeted them moved around to walk beside them while the dozen or so others went ahead or behind. The stares and looks made Rahkesh uncomfortable, but no one appeared to be hostile. The people were dressed in colored silks and a strong leather-like animal hide. Many of them wore huge gaudy necklaces and collars made of gold, gems, feathers, and a type of shell he'd never seen before.

The city rose around them, it had no real walls, but there were no windows on the first floor on the outside. It was built out of solid stone that gleamed a variety of pale colors, mostly tan. People came out onto the many balconies to watch the visitors enter. The balconies themselves had colorful laundry hanging from them and the wide windows had silk curtains. Many of the balconies had massive ceramic pots with plants growing in them, decorated with gold. It was clearly a place of great wealth.

The streets were made of blocks of a pale rosy colored stone that had been laid down so perfectly that the streets were smooth and even. The cracks between the blocks filled in with something white that seemed a bit like cement. The streets were very wide and there was plenty of room for their little procession. Every time they reached a place where two streets met, or the street was wider than elsewhere, there was large earth area, raised up by stone blocks, and filled with plants.

They passed through the city center, a circular area with many streets leading away; the walls of the circle were shops selling all sorts of things. There was one massive place where, through the wide windows, they could see people pushing levers to move looms to create cloth. In another place fish were being cleaned and strips of their meat set out to dry in the sun. The scraps were being thrown into massive clay pots, which were carried away by a group of young teenagers.

The city was not over crowded, that was the first thing Rahkesh noticed. In fact there seemed to be only a small portion of the number of people this place could probably support. All the people had the same sort of look. They were tall with a golden tanned skin and, for the most part, light colored hair. But it was the variety of eye colors that startled him. Orange, gray, yellow, black, gold, blue, green, even purple. They were clean, their clothes well made, and they had a calm manner about them that indicated that they weren't worried at all about the possibility of the visitors being hostile.

Everyone seemed to be going about their usual business and, after the group had passed, went back to what they had been doing. There were no little children. In school maybe, but they didn't see anyone under the age of fourteen. The older children seemed to be helping the adults, but they didn't see anyone around their age either. The only youngsters they saw seemed to be between fourteen and about sixteen.

Nuri was getting a lot of exclamations and pointed fingers. The panther was behaving very well and was totally unaware of the commotion he was causing. There didn't seem to be any domestic animals, other than birds being kept in cages near another butcher.

The procession came to the heart of the city where a large staircase led up to a building set back from the rest of the city. The massive stone structure was encircled with plants growing in an earth filled stone walled trench. They followed their guides up the stairs and into a massive entrance hall.

The hall was decked out in hanging wispy silks and large gold carvings of animals. A bird, a jaguar, a spider, a human face, each piece done entirely in solid gold. A few staircases led to the upper levels, but they walked between them and through another set of doors. Inside the floor was covered in a thick rug made from many layers of silk. Large silk cushions were lying about in a circle and their guides gestured for them to be seated. The cushions were shaped like chairs without legs, with a seat and back.

The guards left, along with most of the other people, leaving them with the four guides and eight others. Copying their hosts the three sat down on the cushions, and discovered that the backrests must have wood or metal in them because they could lean back in them. Nuri lay down next to Silas and the vampire scratched the cub behind the ears. Daray's bat had slipped back inside the backpack at some point, but Sygra was fairly visible around Rahkesh's neck. Fortunately she seemed to be playing dead.

The woman whose hair was going white looked around to catch their attention, then she placed one palm on her chest and spoke. "Nyacahalia." She said, and then gestured to the blond man, who made the same gesture.

"Aernethangk."

Next was the second woman, she was fairly young with her blond hair done in about a dozen small braids falling all the way to her waist. "Kuerimenichi."

The last was the second man, who was bald and wore a white eye patch over his left eye. His arms bore scars that looked like claw marks and he had a long scar that was probably a burn mark across his throat. "Kalahimran."

The other people didn't introduce themselves, and everyone turned to the three guests. It was pretty clear that those were their names, and they expected their guests to introduce themselves.

Before anyone could talk the doors opened and they all turned to look. Another man walked in and took the last empty seat, watching the guests with interest. This one was a vampire. And he was not one of the natives; his pale skin and very dark hair set him apart. Rahkesh thought that he was probably from someplace in Asia, or at least one of his parents had been. Rahkesh and the other humans watched with interest as the three vampires sized each other up warily. Rahkesh could sense the telepathic powers flowing around the room, testing each other, then finally calming into a non-aggressive state. The vampire nodded his head and pointed at himself and spoke.

"Sharahak." He said simply. Daray and Silas nodded. The three traded a look, and then Rahkesh went first. Placing his hand on his own chest as their hosts had done.

"Rahkesh." He said, Daray and Silas introduced themselves. Then Kalahimran pointed at Nuri and raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Nuri." Silas said, the cub lifted his head off his paws and looked around at the circle of people. One of the women who hadn't been introduced, pointed at Rahkesh's neck and began to talk to the others excitedly. Soon they were all peering at the three-foot long black and silver cobra coiled around him. Nyacahalia tapped her own neck and made a motion as if unwinding something from around it. Rahkesh gently lifted Sygra off of him and held her in his arms. He rested hand on her and held her out a bit.

"Sygra." That surprised them, it was a pet. Rahkesh petted the snake and then wrapped her around his neck again. Sygra, no longer playing dead, lifted her head a bit and sniffed the air. The group watched her cautiously.

The woman who had noticed her lifted one hand, with two fingers out like fangs and made a motion like a snake biting something. Then she drew her palm down over her eyes and leaned forward as if dying. Rahkesh nodded, which seemed to mean yes for these people as well as his, and astonished looks passed around the group. They talked amongst themselves for a bit, and then seemed to decide that it was best to let the snake be.

Now the white haired woman began miming something else. The three watched in confusion trying to figure it out.

"If you were her, what sort of question would you be asking?" Silas asked.

"Where we came from." Rahkesh answered. They watched again as she started again. Sharahak, the only vampire, turned to Daray and Silas and began trying languages, to see if they could find a language they all spoke. The woman stopped and the group waited while the three vampires went through a variety of languages. Sharahak must be very well traveled for he went through a half dozen languages. Silas and Daray listened and tried to understand him.

Finally Daray straightened and stopped Sharahak with a wave. He then spoke a few halting words in a language that hadn't been tried yet. Sharahak beamed and replied rapidly in the same. Daray looked confused, Sharahak repeated it more slowly. Daray spoke, carefully thinking out the words, and then held up his thumb and forefinger as if indicating a tiny amount. Sharahak nodded slowly.

"Ancient Egyptian. Grandmother taught me a bit. When I was fourteen and I broke my back and legs and had to rest a lot, she made me study ancient languages." Daray said. "I only remember a little bit, this chap speaks it fluently."

Sharahak spoke, keeping to one word at a time.

"He just asked "where?"" Daray said. "And then he said "how"".

"Do they have anything we can draw on?" Rahkesh asked. Silas held up a hand and moved his hand on it as if writing. The white haired woman sent one of the others, who returned a moment later with a few pieces of dark colored slate and something that seemed to be chalk but didn't quite feel like it.

Rahkesh drew out a handprint like the one Daray had touched. Then showed how one of them with a cut had put the hand on the print accidentally. He then moved his fingers and then covered his eyes trying to simulate a flash of light. Then he shrugged and waved one arm around at the city. They seemed to understand.

The blond man took up two pieces of slate and drew two identical sets of markings. Then he drew a few stick figures and put a small pebble on one. Watching him the three understood that he was trying to show that they had been in a magical ritual that should have moved the pebble from one set of runes to the other magically. Like teleportation, of objects. He drew a series of raindrop, and put the figures inside something at looked like the city. It had started to rain briefly and interrupted the attempt. They had gone inside, and returned to find the rain gone and two vampires, one mortal, one bat, one snake, and a panther lying in the carved runes.

Daray drew raindrop and mimed that it had been raining where they were too, when he had touched the rune accidentally.

Then the woman with the long blond braided hair took the slates and drew a man carving the runes. She then drew a large series of circles. The three frowned in confusion. Sharahak spoke.

"Years." Daray translated. The three nodded. The woman then drew her and her three companions finding the runes. Then she drew them looking at scrolls and drew a few confused faces.

"So someone once built those runes. They found them. Tried to figure out what they were. Thought that they were transporting runes." Rahkesh thought it out. The woman showed them removing dirt from the runes, and trying to activate them. She then drew one of the runes starting to glow. Then the glow stopped. Then the rain came, they went inside, came back, and found them.

"So basically they didn't have a clue what they were doing." Daray said finally. The three traded looks.

"What about going back?" Silas asked. Daray turned and said a few words that Sharahak had trouble understanding, Dray tried again, then he got it and translated quickly to the others.

"I asked "home", and, basically, "can we?" he translated it." Daray said. The four talked amongst themselves and consulted with a few others. Finally the bald man shrugged and slowly nodded. Sharahak said something; Daray shook his head and Sharahak made a gesture to indicate that it was a possibility.

"I guess that's a maybe." Silas said. The blond woman drew a few more picture of them looking through the scrolls, and then of the runes and three stick figures. "Well they are wiling to try."

The door opened and a few people came in bearing large silver platters of food. They handed out clay dishes and put the platters around where everyone could reach one. The woman signaled that they should eat.

The food wasn't bad, though Rahkesh was pretty sure there had been some odd creatures put into it. He stuck to the stuff that was probably the dried fish, and a few plants that didn't look too exotic. It would not be good to find out he had an allergic reaction to anything.

After the meal most of the people left, leaving them with the four, who Rahkesh assumed to be the ones who had activated the runes, and Sharahak. They were led on a tour of the city, their five guides doing their best to explain a few things. Often as not Daray would have no clue what Sharahak tried to describe, this was when the vampires utilized telepathy, trying to communicate the most simple concepts mentally. Opening his own mind, and startling Sharahak horribly as he did so, Rahkesh tried to feel what Sharahak was trying to get across. Being human he felt the telepathy differently and occasionally got things the others didn't. They used the slates to ask questions in drawings.

Finally they were shown to a few guest rooms. The rooms didn't actually have doors; instead they used thousands of strings of shells and beads, followed by thick curtains of some sort of cloth. The beds were actually wooden, covered with a thick mattress made of several layers of silk stuffed with feathers. After their hosts had left the three gathered in Daray's room to talk.

"So we're stuck here for the time being. We'll have to learn the language." Silas thought aloud.

"There are potions to help with that." Daray said, "I wonder if we could find the right ingredients, or good substitutes."

"Possibly." Rahkesh replied. He had his trunk in his earring and had a good selection of potion ingredients in it. His friends didn't know about the powers of that tiny obsidian earring yet.

"So what do we know about this place?" Silas asked.

"Well we did ask them a lot about their culture. It's amazing but if I understood right the whole society is literate. And they're all trained to fight if ever attacked. Children are schooled until age fourteen, and then they spend two years learning to fight and working at various things that need doing. Then they go back to school for another four years to specialize a bit more. Explains why we only saw fourteen and fifteen year olds on the way in. The children between thirteen and twenty live in dormitories, communal raising of children." Daray said slowly.

Silas unclipped a buckle from his boot and tapped it twice. It transformed into a box about the size of a shoebox. From this Silas removed a few sheets of paper and a few pencils. Rahkesh grinned, very clever. He'd have to show them his earring sometime. Apparently he wasn't the only one who thought carry certain supplies around could be useful.

Daray took the paper and pencils and moved into the single chair by the small desk.

"Okay, so if we under stand them right there's twenty or so of these cities all across the mountains, each one about the same in size." Silas began. "Population is strictly controlled, you have to get permission to have children, but that's apparently not a problem because they're all in schooling until twenty and most don't start families until they're thirty or forty. People with greater intelligence or abilities have a better chance of being allowed to have more children. All badly deformed babies are executed at birth. They don't have money, they all work together and no one takes more than they need."

"Definitely not human," Rahkesh said with a smile, "hundreds of thousands managing to live that way? I've never heard of such a thing."

"When I asked about farming Sharahak said that they're careful with the land. They have tree farms for wood and they plant crops on the roofs and in terraces, and are very careful about erosion on the mountainside. They use a few diverted rivers to power machines whenever they need to lift things to the tops of the buildings, very advanced mechanically." Daray noted, writing quickly.

"Each city maintains sixty or so full-time warriors but everyone is required to learn basic fighting skills." Silas continued from what they had been able to learn of their guests. "There are two cities deep in the mountains that operate on slave labor and are home only to warriors. They each can field one thousand five hundred whenever they're needed. Slaves are taken only when patrols are attacked. If you don't harm them they won't harm you. If you have a logical reason for attacking them they'll forgive you for it. Still apparently there are raiders from a few war-like tribes that occasionally threaten them. That must be where those hidden warrior cities get their slaves from. And they have sorcerers to protect them. Oh, and they're all capable of minimal magic."

"Everyone having magic seems a bit strange, when they also use water power to run some machinery." Rahkesh commented. "Not a bad lifestyle, in fact they all seem very content. They don't find us particularly threatening because their own fighters are apparently the best they know to exist. They're all fairly happy with their lives, no political disputes, and no apparent religion at all, well as far as we could tell. I wasn't sure how to ask that. They're every careful about the impact they have on their surroundings; they seem to know that if they're too harsh on the land they'll have to move. Despite their fighting readiness they're not a military culture really."

"And they offered us a place among the students until we find a way to go home." Daray finished.

"Don't you find that odd? A society, apparently with only the most minimal of outside contact, that is entirely magical. Obviously there are differences in how powerful they are, but they all have magic." Rahkesh asked.

"Yes it is odd. And their appearance is odd too. Their skin is obviously not like anything anywhere else, they're too gold; it's a little unnatural. They've got every natural hair color imaginable. Oh, and those eyes. I've never seen people with eyes like theirs, there's too much variety. I would think that they were a mix of several different races, but for the fact that they all have the exact same body type and facial features." Silas said. "And while I know that Daray and I don't have to worry there is a chance that there could be diseases circulating here, that they think nothing of but that could kill you Rahkesh."

Rahkesh wasn't too worried about that, he'd noticed that their hosts all appeared to be amazingly healthy, there weren't even any missing teeth in any of them.

"The only thing I'm worried about is the time. There aren't any cultures like this in our time are there? I'm not too worried about where we are, just _when_ we are." Rahkesh said. The two vampires traded looks.

"One of them gave a date, but I don't think they're on the same calendar we are." Silas said.

"We can ask what sort of astronomers they have. Look through the star charts." Rahkesh suggested.

Daray looked up suddenly. "They said they were called the Chachapoyaro, the magical kin of the Chachapoyas, at least that's what I think the sketches meant. I know I heard the word Chachapoya when I asked. The Chachapoya culture was around for a long time, started to decline about two thousand years ago. Grandmother told us about traveling South America when she was very young, she met them then."

"Yes but she didn't say anything about a magical culture. In fact she said they were non magical." Silas reminded him.

"So those with magic left. And we've found where they moved too. But if grandmother never heard of them then it could have happened long before or long after her time. And since the Chachapoyas didn't say anything there's a good chance that this place is another part of the world that has been copied and removed from it, like Akren." Daray said.

"How many places like that are there?" Rahkesh asked.

"Thousands, every time you build something that is larger inside than it is outside you're just copying the space inside multiple times. At Akren Mountain School of Magic they didn't just copy everything - they actually copied and then permanently removed an entire mountain range. All of Australia has been copied and cut off from anything form the muggle world, there're several sites in North America where Viking mages copied small pieces of land and then abandoned them. My aunt told me that the most recent survey said that nearly half of Europe was copied between A.D. 800 and now, possibly much more than half, since some of it can't be reached unless you know the password or are a blood relative of the original owner. And a good portion of Asia has been copied as well. It's not unusual, what's unusual is a place as large as this or Australia or Akren." Silas said.

"We'll find out more tomorrow, and I want to know what the name of the city is." Rahkesh decided, he had forgotten to ask.

"And tomorrow we'll see what sort of training they get here." Daray said as the other two left for their own rooms. "If we're going to be here for a while we might as well take it as the opportunity it is."

XXX

Rahkesh woke early the next morning and spent a half hour drawing out what he could remember the stars looked like in their time. Hopefully he could find some decent astronomers to help him compare the two, since his wasn't sure how to tell the passage of time by the stars. Their hosts were not especially early risers, it was a full hour after dawn before he heard people moving about and getting up.

_Master, I think someone is coming. May I come with you?_

_Certainly. Just don't bite anyone okay?_

_If they step on me I will bite. _

_No venom. _

_Fine._

There was a polite cough from beyond the door hangings, and a moment later two people stepped inside.

The first one was a young man, probably a year younger than Rahkesh was. He had short dark blond hair that was tied back with a string of small gold feathers. He was wearing animal hide shorts and a belt made from some sort of reptile that had about a dozen pouches hanging from it. The second person was a girl, about the same age as the boy, she would have been stunningly beautiful, Rahkesh thought, but for a rather interesting set of scars over the left side of her face, scars that might have been from the claws of some jungle creature. She was wearing shorts of the same material and a sleeveless silk top. She too carried several pouches on a reptile skin belt, and a set of knives. Both of them were barefoot. The girl was wearing three gold armbands, one of which looked like a small gold snake, and a necklace of silver links with tiny green shells set into the silver. The boy was wearing silver and copper bracelets on his ankles and wrists.

The two watched Rahkesh curiously. Rahkesh, who had been petting Sygra, wrapped the snake around his neck and smiled at them. The girl pointed at herself.

"Xerithiari." She smiled and then said "Xeri." Rahkesh had already guessed that these people probably did not call each other by their rather long and complicated names, using a nickname instead. She pointed to her companion, who was studying Sygra intently.

"Nicodemus. Nic." Rahkesh nodded and introduced himself, but gave no shortening of his name. He then introduced the snake, Xeri left and Nic beckoned him to follow. Rahkesh followed as they went to collect the two vampires. Sharahak joined them a few minutes later and their three hosts led them to breakfast. Nuri padding silently alongside Silas.

"I've asked Sharahak to help us with some rudimentary vocabulary. The issue is that it has to be translated from their language, to ancient Egyptian, to English, and that doesn't work very well. I think we're going to have to learn their language the hard way." Daray said. "Silas and I could learn it quicker if we fed on some of them. Vampires can mentally connect with the person they're feeding on, we often use it to modify memories or find information."

"Or we could just brew some language potions. I think I have the ingredients." Rahkesh said, ignoring the look Daray gave him. Actually he did have all the ingredients necessary, he'd checked the night before. He was going to have to tell them about the earring. But that could wait for now.

Breakfast took place in either of two large halls beside the dormitories with about fifty other young people between the ages of sixteen and nineteen. The younger children got the second hall.

The room was rectangular, nothing especially fancy; its designers had created it as an eating place for teenagers and hadn't put much effort into making it look nice. But all the doorways had arches and the walls had stone mosaics of flowers and plants. Basic things that had probably been built by the children themselves. Nic showed through miming and sketches that everyone over the age of twelve took turns at cooking.

Their entrance created an abrupt silence, followed by excited chatter and several people standing up to get a better look at Nuri. Nic and Xeri led them into the kitchen where they each took a large plate and took breakfast from a buffet style line up. It was surprisingly good, even though none of them had a clue what it was. Some sort of grains, nuts, and fruit with dried meat and what seemed to be hardboiled eggs, though not from a chicken.

They sat down with at a table and ate quickly. No one left the hall though and several adults drifted in towards the end of the meal. People eventually began calling out questions and finally Xeri stood and waved an arm for silence. The natives must have been very curious because the silence was immediate. Xeri then launched into a rapid speech to her peers. Sharahak said a few words to Daray, who, after several minutes, figured out what he was saying.

"She's telling them how we came here. And that we'll be staying for a bit." Daray told the other two. Xeri stopped and then signaled them to rise and introduce themselves. After they had done this people began talking again, finally Xeri got them quiet and pointed to the panther. Nuri saw this and leaped onto the table, startling everyone. Silas gave his name and pulled the panther down.

"You silly showoff, stop that." Nuri purred. The people sitting near then were reaching out to pet him, and, not at all shy, Nuri let them, purring away delighted with the attention.

"He is such a flirt." Silas sighed, as Nuri rubbed his head against someone's shins. He growled once at a boy petting his tail, sending his admirers scattering, but they got over the scare and came back.

Two of the adults who seemed to be supervising things called out to get everyone's attention. Rahkesh, Silas, and Daray waited while they spoke for a few moments, then some of the teenagers began to gather the plates while others gathered the wooden spoons and cups. The crowd dispersed, everyone picking up things they had left in the entrance hallway on the way out. Most of them were carrying weapons and bags filled with things they would need for the day. Their two guides stood and beckoned them to follow.

They went to a large dirt-floored courtyard where a few guards were already up and practicing with six-foot wooden staves. Simple weapons with no ornaments.

"No one here wears shoes." Rahkesh commented, "they must have amazingly tough feet."

"Shall we do the same?" Silas asked.

"Yes." Daray said. The three studied the others as they all sat down on an area covered with massive flat rock blocks and began to stretch. "You know, these people put almost no effort at all into clothing, most of the people in the city were wearing almost nothing, but they put an amazing amount of effort into decoration. The jewelry they're all wearing is incredible artwork."

"I had noticed, and I don't think that they put the same value on such things as we do, a lot of them are wearing enough gemstones to buy a small country. Then again they don't have money at all." Rahkesh said.

"Apparently weapons practice comes first." Silas said as their companions gestured that they should start stretching with them. The three traded grins. Then they sat down as well and began to take off their boots and socks, their hosts watching with interest.

"Never seen footwear before." Rahkesh guessed as Nic took one of his boots and examined it. The young man tried bending the unfamiliar material, then took out the knife Rahkesh had placed in his boot, instead of a taser (he didn't think that would go over too well). He handed the knife to Rahkesh and Rahkesh asked, by hand motions, what weapons they used. Nic looked around, then shrugged and waved a hand towards the older warriors sparring. There were a variety of weapons, staves, knives, bows, and whips. The metal was mostly unfamiliar, but some of the knives seemed to be made of copper.

"I know only a little about staff fighting, that's not until muggle weapons class, Gandmother made us learn a bit early. But Xeri had knives, and so do a lot of the others. I'm sure we can hold our own there." Daray said.

"Or with unarmed combat. Look." Rahkesh pointed, two women were going through a rapid set of attack and block drills. "They're both wearing red feathers around their necks, wonder what those are?" Silas shrugged.

"I don't think most of the jewelry has a purpose, other than magic, it seems to be mostly for show. You notice the ankle bracelet they all wear, right ankle? I sense magic around it." Silas said. Rahkesh closed his eyes, and tried to focus. He opened them again and stared hard at the ankle bracelet Xeri was wearing. He relaxed and reached mentally, there was magic there, a felt a little like a locator charm, finding people, protection against getting lost.

"Some sort of locator charm, in case they get lost?" Rahkesh said.

"Possibly, only the ones training here have them, most of the adults don't. Maybe they have some sort of patrol duty around the rainforest near the city?" Daray theorized.

Rahkesh signaled to the copper ankle bracelet Nic was wearing, the one that seemed to be magical. Nic tapped it and began to draw on a slate. First he drew a person looking lost amongst the jungle plants. Then he drew the bracelet giving off some sort of signal. Then he drew another person, holding a square piece of metal with a few gemstones on it. Then he drew a group of people finding the lost person.

"So it is a locating device." Rahkesh said. "Interesting, they must wear them permanently. I wonder-" Then he stopped, Nic had started sketching again. This time it was people holding weapons, all of them with the ankle bracelet. Then he drew people in the city, none of them wearing the magical anklets. He looked up, wondering if they understood. Rahkesh nodded.

"Only the warriors then." Silas said. "Neat idea, I wonder how they enchant them?"

"We should make an effort to learn their magics. An entirely magical culture is bound to invent a lot of useful things." Daray said.

A few of the adults had stopped sparring and now approached the group stretching on the rocks. Xeri went over to them and introduced Rahkesh, Silas, and Daray to them. The instructors asked, by miming, if they knew how to fight, the three answered with nods. The instructors began speaking to the students, while the three guests watched, not understanding a word but knowing that listening intently would help them to eventually learn the language. The students moved into a large circle and Xeri and Nic drew Rahkesh, Silas, and Daray in to join them. Nuri was left by the rocks with Sygra and Sharahak. The vampire was currently using all his vampiric senses to try and figure out Sygra's magical abilities, Sygra was ignoring him with the complete boredom that only a snake could manage.

It seemed that the instructors were intent on demonstrating the skills of their students for their guests, as their hosts looked too excited for this to be normal. The female instructor called out two names and the two students moved to the center of the circle to spar.

Rahkesh felt a great wash of relief when he noticed that the students weren't so much better than he and his two friends. Once again his time in the Room of Requirement had been well spent; he was easily as good as any of their hosts. It was all unarmed combat for now, which was even better since he didn't have a clue how to use a staff.

Finally the instructor called Rahkesh and looked around. A man who was wearing a necklace of tiny blue and white feathers jumped up. Offering to fight. The instructor shrugged and nodded. Rahkesh sized up his opponent, the young man looked eager for a fight, and as if he was sure of winning. He wasn't quite as tall as Rahkesh, but he appeared to be stronger. But that was okay, so were all of his usual sparring partners.

Rahkesh circled a few times, watching his opponent's footing, he noticed a quick clenching of muscle and blocked easily. That had been one thing Ally had taught him, the way your opponent's muscles move, and where they look, will usually tell you where they will attack. The easy block made the young man scowl, he'd clearly been hoping for an easy win over the foreigner.

Clearly no one had told this young man about the eye thing, because he was looking directly where he intended to strike. Rahkesh blocked several kicks and punches before performing a kick that hit his opponent's hip. It wasn't a hit that was going to cause any damage, but it would bruise. He followed it up immediately with another kick to the other hip and a third to the knee.

This annoyed the young man he was sparring with, and he leaped in to attack. But again he was looking where he intended to hit. He also used his fists, always, Rahkesh preferred open handed fighting whenever possible. Fingers were good for jabbing and if you hit right they could really hurt. And the side of the hand near the little finger was very strong. His opponent also tended to expand a lot of effort lunging at his opponent instead of walking up to him. Rahkesh began to move with the intent of confusing his opponent, never being quite where the other expected. At each attempted hit he moved to the side, forcing the other boy to keep turning. He didn't turn his feet as much as the rest of him. Rahkesh had learned quickly from the Akren teachers that moving the feet came before anything else. He waited until the man was turning again to get at him, then he struck. In and out, one devastating blow to the throat with the side of his hand.

Wolf tactics, Marluck often called it, get in, hit, and get out. Don't follow it up until you intend to kill. Rahkesh liked it; don't give the other person a good chance to hit you at close range. A quick hard strike would stun the opponent, hurt them, and make them a little more fearful.

It worked now, the other young man reeled, choking and clutching his throat, tears springing to his eyes. He straightened quickly enough, realizing that there was no real damage, or at least nothing serious. The two instructors traded looks, the two vampires smirked openly, and the class watched eagerly. It made Rahkesh wonder if he wasn't fighting the resident bully, since his fellow students didn't seem to be rooting for him any. In fact if the oohs at the throat attack were anything to go by they were hoping Rahkesh would win.

His opponent snarled something that must have been nasty because the students looked annoyed. Rahkesh shrugged stayed still, waiting with a relaxed, uncaring posture for his opponent to recover.

His opponent recovered but now Rahkesh was attacking. He moved in close and began a series of lightning quick punches, turning his shoulder to all the punches aimed at him in return. His opponent used only his arm to punch; he didn't put his whole body into it. Rahkesh might have years less of experience but because of that he had forced himself to learn to use what he knew to the best effect. Extra lessons with the best fighting teachers at Akren had helped him to learn to put his whole body behind every attack, and the other young man was going to be hurting a lot worse than he was the next day. Finally Rahkesh kicked, truly most experts would have said he was too close for a kick, but this time Rahkesh used the momentum to push himself away from his opponent. It added force since all of his weight was behind it, and all of his weight was also being pushed away. The kick connected hard to the man's gut and he was slammed backwards onto the ground. Rahkesh used his momentum and lack of balance to swing himself around a complete 360 and stopped with his feet planted, ready to attack again.

There was no need, his opponent wasn't going to be coming back for more, he was flat on his back. One of the instructors, who were both watching Rahkesh with interest, stepped between them and signaled an end and beckoned Silas forward to spar with another young man.

His defeated opponent struggled unsteadily to his feet and shot Rahkesh a murderous glare. Rahkesh ignored it and sat down between nice and Daray to watch the next fight.

"Better be careful about that one. He doesn't like to lose." Daray commented.

"Yeah I noticed. They seem happy I beat him." Rahkesh replied. Several members of the class were tossing what were probably insults at the man he'd defeated.

Later after they had each beaten one of the other students the instructors began leading everyone through sets of drills. With the help of Xeri and Nic they struggled to keep up with the unfamiliar movements. Nuri had attracted the attention of some of the warriors hanging around, and they were seated around the young panther, petting him and laughing when he pawed at the strings of feathers a few of them wore in their hair.

"He is like a sponge, soaks up attention." Silas muttered as the cat placed paw on a woman's head to sniff at the feathers tied into her long braid. Sharahak had vanished, and while a few of the warriors were studying Sygra no one touched her, or tried to make her move – the snake was taking up half of one of the rock benches. But no one shoves a venomous snake around.

The next stop was with the city healers. Xeri mimed that she had other lessons elsewhere and left them with Nic and Sharahak. Once again they attracted a lot of stares and curious looks on their ay through the city, by now information about them was circulating well, and that just caused more questions.

Sharahak, Silas, and Daray all stopped outside of the building that housed what must be the city hospital.

"It smells like blood." Silas said, shaking his head and backing up. "No way, I think we'll just wait out here." Daray didn't say anything but his eyes had acquired the odd glow that Rahkesh was starting to recognize as a sure signal that the vampiric feeding instincts were starting to kick in. Sharahak beckoned to the two younger vampires and began to draw on one of the slates.

"We're going hunting." Silas told Rahkesh, "could you watch Nuri?"

"All right, see you later." Rahkesh said, reaching down to scratch behind the panther's ears, he took the leash from Silas, which was completely unnecessary, and followed Nic into the building.

Whatever Rahkesh had been expecting it was not this. The front room had a lot of benches and chairs, there were a few people waiting out here. Inside was a large room with beds along both walls, it was spotlessly clean and fresh air circulated through open windows, that, remarkably enough, had actual screens. The walls were a foot thick and the windows had several layers of screens to stop insects from getting in. What exactly the screens were made from Rahkesh couldn't tell, some sort of string, and metal, and something else, but there were no insects in the room.

There were a few people in the beds, two of them appeared to have broken legs – they both had well-made splints. In smaller room two people were meticulously cleaning out a wound on a man's back. Nic pointed to one door with a black X mark on it and made a series of motions that Rahkesh assumed meant people sick with something contagious. Nic then drew a person who glowed, and then drew them opening the door. So the glowing person was caring for the sick people. Only the healers who used magic were allowed in. This made sense to Rahkesh since they could probably use their magic to keep themselves from getting ill.

Nic then led him through another door to a room where several people wearing blue feathers were working. Following Nic around what Rahkesh learned in the next hour amazed him.

The healers kept birth to death medical records of every individual in the entire city. If someone visiting from another city got ill or injured the information was sent to his or her home city so that the file would not be incomplete. After death the records were stored in the enchanted vaults beneath the city. They also kept complete family trees for every individual, so that if two people wanting to have children turned out to be second cousins they would know. Everything was recorded, including dentistry, which the healers also took care of. There were diagrams of every part of the human body, with students studying them. Nic explained that he was studying magical healing and the fighting arts.

The healers showed him a room where a massive cage-like structure sat on the floor. They explained with drawings that this was a quarantine structure that they were building, in case it was ever needed. There was another room where students were brewing healing potions.

The people of this city must be very healthy since there were very few who came into the healers building that day. And of those most of them were for minor things, a child with a skinned knee or sprained wrist. Rahkesh sent Nuri over to the children and the cub quickly settled down to spend the rest of the day being admired and pampered by the patients and healers alike.

Rahkesh joined the students studying magical healing and began studying their potion making. He'd never seen most of the ingredients they used, but he was very interested in learning what all of the plants and animals were used for. As they brewed the potions he drew a quick sketch of the clay pipe that ran along the far wall. Nic smiled and beckoned him over to a stone basin. He opened a stopper in the pipe, and cold, clean, water came rushing out into the basin.

They even had running water. Amazed Rahkesh tried to ask where the water came from, and, once he finally understood what his guest was asking, Nic spent an hour drawing out an underground spring, cloth filters for cleaning the water, and a system of clay pipes. The spring was higher up in the mountains, and by tapping into it they had a source of fresh water. Since it came from up above they utilized gravity to get it into the city with underground pipes. There was a water tank in one of the highest building to put enough pressure into the system so that they could send water everywhere in the city. It was remarkably sophisticated. And the cleaning process with the cloth filters to keep it clean was ingenious. Most of the pipes ended in dead end, so that water flowed only when they were opened. Bathing was done in a communal bathhouse and any extra water was carried by bucket and dumped into a large tank at one end of the city. Here it (and all human excrement) was washed out onto a field several hundred feet below in the forest. After a year or two the pipe would be moved to another field, three years after that the field would be planted. After two years of being planted the pipe would be moved back to that field again. The cycle kept the high quality soil, and took care of the waste problem.

XXX

That night the three gathered in Rahkesh's room to make a language potion. Rahkesh removed his trunk with everything they would need in it from his earring.

"Now that is a good idea." Silas said as the trunk expanded to its original size at their feet. Rahkesh pulled out a cauldron while the vampires got a small fire going. He found two books with a language potion in them and then got out the ingredients.

"What exactly did you hunt here?" Rahkesh asked.

"The forest animals. Capybara blood is good, so is the blood of the deer they have here. We don't drink from reptiles usually, but Sharahak says that there are some tree snakes with good blood. I'm just worried about what effect reptile blood would have on a vampire. He says there isn't any noticeable effect." Silas said, drawing a knife and beginning to chop up mere cat claws.

"Is he the only vampire here?"

"The only one he knows of, some of the other cities might have vampires, he's never been to most of them. He got chased out of his last home by a few more powerful vampires. They have since set themselves up as gods. He settled here because there weren't any vampires." Silas said. "What do you think of the other students?"

"They're nice enough but it's a little hard to get an idea of their personalities, since we can't really speak to them." Rahkesh replied.

"I liked their fighting training, Grandmother would approve." Daray decided, "and Sharahak seems nice enough, only dangerous when threatened."

"I like how clean it is." Silas said.

"We really should learn their type of potion brewing. They've got so many ingredients I've never heard of or seen. I bet a lot of the plants here have powers that have never been recorded, not where we would ever find then anyway."

They worked for most of the night, just before dawn the potion was finished.

"It certainly smells despicable enough." Daray said as he poured it into three cups.

"So long as it works." Silas said, examining the thick brown and red broth. The three drank, and then cleaned away the extra ingredients and the cauldron. Rahkesh placed the earring back in and went to bed; they still had a few hours until dawn.


	14. Chapter 14

For those of you who are wondering what that question was last chapter – how many witches and wizards are there in the world – was all about, that will be in the next part of the series, if I write a second part.

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Chapter 14

"We didn't misread the runes. They are devices intended to transport people or objects from one set to the other. However we performed the magic backwards." Nyacahalia explained to the two vampires and one mortal seated in front of them. It had taken three months but the four sorcerers had finally gotten back to them about going home.

"We can send you back, we searched the runes and they still carry your magical signature. All we need to know is how many years into the future you need to be." Kalahimran explained. "Once we know that we have to wait one year, until the same day at the same time you came here. Then we activate the rune backwards again. You have to mark off how far apart the two rings are by using the sand in the center, you draw in the distance. We didn't do that last time. Now we know. Rather than drawing in the symbols to represent distance we'll draw in the symbols to represent years."

Rahkesh and his two companions traded looks. All of the wondering how the sorcerers had managed to miss something like that the first time around. But it didn't really matter. They could go home, in nine months.

"Who are your astronomers?" Daray asked carefully pronouncing their word for astronomer. The language potion had been an especially powerful one and it had worked wonders. In three months they had a basic grasp of the language. They hadn't learned to read or write it, but it seemed that since they only had a year speaking it would be enough. They had occasional trouble with words they hadn't heard yet, and there were plenty of them. And they still spoke fairly slowly, having to search for each word. But the memorization potions had helped a lot and they were steadily progressing. They still messed up, causing much hilarity among their companions, but they could carry a conversation well enough.

The astronomers seemed to be part of the group that had been at the runes during their arrival. Most of them wore white robes that looked shockingly Grecian and silver and gold ornaments. Like with everything else the Chachapoyaro were amazingly advanced. They may not use glass on windows or anything else, but they did have an excellent. If a little odd looking, telescope. And highly sophisticated star charts.

The head astronomer, Illimnhiro was a bald elderly man who seemed very excited about trying to find the time period the visitors came from. He explained that after several centuries of study they had learned to guess with near perfect accuracy what the stars would look like in the future. The first astronomers had made predictions that were confirmed centuries later by their descendants. He took Rahkesh's drawings and distributed copies among the others.

"We have star charts of what we think the stars will look like at any given time, so all we need to do is to find the charts that most closely fits these, and then calculate how many years it is. However we have no idea when to look so it may take a while." He said apologetically. "But we'll find it, never fear."

"That man seems like a very dedicated academic, three days I think." Rahkesh guessed.

"No, it'll take four days." Daray disagreed.

"Oh please, I think he found it to be personally humiliating that he couldn't figure it out right then, tomorrow evening at the latest." Silas said.

Silas must have had a better handle on Illimnhiro, because sure enough during the noon meal the excited chief astronomer came running, in a rather undignified fashion, down the steps and into the courtyard where they were eating with the other students.

"Ha ha! Told you we'd find it!" He cheered, tossing Rahkesh his charts back and pulling out another star chart from under his arm. "One thousand and five years!"

The others gathered around to compare the two star charts, and found that they were exactly the same. Feeling that the old astronomer was getting over excited waiting for them to reply Rahkesh handed him his chart back.

"Amazing, really amazing. I'd never have guessed it was that long." Illimnhiro grinned so wide Rahkesh thought his face would split.

"I'll go tell the sorcerers, ha! Got one over those silly staff wavers! And they didn't think we'd be able to find it!" The old man practically sprinted from the courtyard.

"I didn't know he _could_ run." Nic commented, "in fact, I've never seen him leave the astronomers wing."

"How long until you can go home?" Xeri asked.

"Nine months." Rahkesh replied. "You think we can learn your staff fighting in that time?" The instructors and other students grinned. Nicodemus tossed them all staves.

The instructors, Rahkesh mused, really were very clever. Ever since he and the vampire's had announced their wish to master as much of the Chachapoyaro fighting as possible the instructors had gotten the other students to teach them. The two months since that day had been a training marathon for everyone. The drive to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible had been contagious amongst the students and soon everyone was showing up for twice the usual time allotted for lessons. Seeing the success the other teachers had done the same. Once Daray and Silas had placed anti-scent charms on themselves so that they didn't have to suffer from the smell of so much blood they had joined the potions class in the healers wing. The potions teachers had decided that it was their duty to send the three back with as much knowledge as possible. And again the rest of the class picked it up. The three had done their part by writing everything down. Each one of them working on finding the properties and harvesting methods of different ingredients. And the recopies for different potions, memorization could come later, for now they were just trying to record as much as possible.

All day was spent learning, most of the night spent recording the potions they'd learned and the properties of the ingredients. Pepper up and other energizing potions kept them going as they gathered plants and animals and stored the ingredients in their backpacks, which had been enchanted to be bigger inside than outside. Now that they knew when they would be going back they began to work even harder, exhausting even the vampires in their pursuit of all the knowledge the Chachapoyaro could give them.

"After all none of this knowledge is available in our time, not that we're aware of. Knowing stuff that no one else does could be very useful." Daray had said when they started.

The group spilt into pairs and began working with the staves. Rahkesh found that he really liked these weapons, better than he liked the fencing anyway. Which was fortunate since the Chachapoyaro didn't use swords much; they preferred blowguns and darts, long bows, staves, and knives.

"Watch your foot." Nic warned him as Rahkesh nearly smacked his own ankle. Rahkesh ignored the advice and swung anyway, whipping the staff around and lifting his foot out of the way just in time. With the foot gone his body fell forward, moving in perfect connection with the blow. He planted the foot and turned, coming in for a second blow; Nic knocked both aside, moving quickly to keep up. Rahkesh smirked as the other young man had to dodge his initial attack rather than counter. He _really_ liked these staves.

Unfortunately Nic had many years more experience and promptly landed a painful blow on Rahkesh's side. Rather than take a minute to shake off the pain Rahkesh continued his attack, again startling Nic who'd assumed he would pause once hit. He still managed to knock the staff aside and swung at Rahkesh's feet, Rahkesh neatly sidestepped and attacked again.

As the groups sparred the vampires drifted into the shadows cast by the surrounding buildings. The sunlight was a problem for them. The potions room was indoors, and gathering ingredients wasn't an issue since it was all down under the thick forest canopy where very little light penetrated. Fighting classes were a problem, the courtyard was mostly sunny. However they had learned to stay in the shade and found that it helped. Xeri and Nic had persuaded Rahkesh to stop wearing the arm guards and go shirtless as they did, but the vampires refused. Too much sunlight made them ill and the Chachapoyaro seemed to shut down at night, forcing the vampires to be up and around only during the daylight. For them the less skin exposed to the sun's harsh rays the better they felt.

Fortunately both of them had found the time to complete the next two parts of their blood magic in the three months they'd been with the Chachapoyaro. Nic had shown them a cave in the mountains that they'd modified for the blood magic rituals. Rahkesh had completed his set of night vision runes and the next parts of his speed and strength runes. He was pushing himself hard, knowing that if the sorcerers were right there was a good chance they'd arrive back in their own time to find that no time had passed. Therefore it made sense to get as much bloodmagic done as possible. Bloodmagic was time consuming and if he could finish several pieces then it would put him even farther ahead, which meant that he could start necromancy and soul magic sooner.

XXX

The stranger was led into the city by one of the patrol that ranged through the forest below the city. He was not a Chachapoyaro, he didn't speak their language and he stared in awe at the massive buildings. They came in at dawn, and so missed most of the populace. But Nicodemus had been on guard duty that morning and had come to wake them as soon as the next guard relieved him.

Still half-asleep Xeri, Daray, Silas, and Rahkesh gathered in the dining room to listen. Nicodemus was agitated, pacing continuously.

"I'm telling you he was Inca." He said for the fifth time.

"Nic you must be mistaken, they wouldn't bring an Inca here." Xeri disagreed, again. Finally getting tired of not understanding what they were talking about Rahkesh broke in.

"What is an Inca and why does it matter?" When Nic just kept pacing Xeri sighed and explained.

"The Inca are a largely non-magic people who have been invading the area for a few years. They can't get to Vailape of course, the walls are too strong-"

"What walls?" Daray asked, Vailape (the city) didn't have walls.

"The walls…you've never seen them. At the edge of the forest, you know how it drops away sharply? It does that because there's a cliff there. There didn't use to be a drop off like that, we dug into the earth until we hit bedrock, than hacked a cliff out of it. Smoothed it out with magic you can't climb it." Xeri explained. Not far away from the city the forest dropped off suddenly, flattened out, then dropped off again, like tow stairs.

"There's two cliffs, they surround the city. There's one staircase going down. But there's enough land up here that we don't nee dot go down. The road to the other cities is back in the mountains behind us, and the Inca can't get into these mountains." Nic said.

"So the Inca have been invading, and the patrol brought one into the city?" Rahkesh asked.

"YES! I can't imagine what they were thinking. Bringing one of them here. No Inca has ever seen one of our cities, that's part of our advantage." Nic said.

"Sit down Nic. They probably just brought him in to interrogate him. In a few weeks they'll send him on to Xuelhuala." Xeri said. Xuelhuala was one of the cities f warriors hidden deep in the mountains that ran on slave labor. Nic sat down and picked at his breakfast.

"I don't like knowing that one of them got in here, prisoner or not. And why couldn't they interrogate him outside the city?"

"Maybe they'll just execute him." Rahkesh said.

It turned out that Rahkesh had been right. After a rigorous interrogation session, that could not have been pleasant, the prisoner had been decapitated in the city center. Everyone had turned out to watch and nod with approval.

But all Rahkesh saw was that the prisoner smiled as they did it. And he started to worry.

"You're just feeling Nic's temper. He's still pissed at that patrol." Silas had said. The patrol in question had been one of students, who had been banned from future patrols for a while. But Rahkesh still felt that something was very, very, wrong. Even after Nic had calmed down he couldn't sleep, couldn't think of much besides that prisoner.

"Rahkesh he's dead. The Inca aren't magical and they have no chance of getting in here." Xeri told him.

"Yeah, try to relax, there's no reason to be so worried." Silas told him. But Rahkesh could not relax, he was too worried. And it didn't escape his notice that Daray wasn't faring any better.

"You sense it too?" He asked once the others had left the courtyard.

"Yes. Something is going to happen, and I don't like it." The vampire said. "Not that anyone's going to listen. Heck, what would we do if they did? I don't even know what's wrong, just that something is."

"An attack?" Rahkesh asked.

"No, not yet," Daray said thoughtfully, "not a violent danger, not now. I don't know what it is."

"I agree, not an Inca attack then, not yet. Some form inside the city I think." Rahkesh said.

"Traitors?"

"No. Something else." Rahkesh shrugged and the two followed their companions to the potions classes.

Their worries were confirmed when people started falling ill. Rahkesh first noticed one day while one of the healers was teaching him to heal internal injuries wandlessly. It seemed unusual that thirty people came in in one day, all with the same symptoms.

The next day fifty more got sick. And the healers isolated them in the room with a black X on the door. They told everyone to stay isolated as much as possible. That night the city elders met.

In spite of the isolation of everyone who had gotten sick there were fifty new cases within three days.

On the sixth day the healers called them to the hospital, hoping that their visitors might recognize the illness.

The scene inside the hospital was one Rahkesh knew he'd never forget. First there was the smell, it wasn't a nice smell. It was gross, sickening, and frightening. The whole building reeked.

"Smells like death." Silas finally said.

"Yes, it does." Daray agreed.

People lay in every available bed. The first one was a young girl, who couldn't have been more than ten. Her skin was a sickly gray color; her eyes bloodshot and the floor beside her had dried vomit all over it.

The others were no better. In many cases they seemed to be changing color, turning purplish, while open sores oozed blood.

"What are the symptoms?" Rahkesh asked the head healer. A tall gray haired man named Chalvari.

"What aren't the symptoms!" The exhausted looking healer asked. "Sorry, I haven't slept in days." He added. "Headaches, muscular aches, blurred vision, trouble with the various senses, high fever, vomiting, vomiting blood, coughing blood, open sores around face and most limbs, seizures, partial paralysis in some cases, and then they go into a coma and die. Usually in that order. One hundred and thirty one." He said before they could ask the exact numbers of dead. "Happens in anywhere from three hours to four days it seems."

"93 mortality rate." Another healer said, "and two more just died."

"That prisoner," Daray said, "brought some disease with him." Chalvari nodded.

"We assume so. No other way really. And it is probably airborne; there aren't enough rodents or insects to spread this so fast. We're very careful about that. An they've all been falling sick at the same time."

"What about the water?" Rahkesh asked.

"Don't know. There's been no changes in its taste or color. And a few of the people who've gotten ill drank more fruit juice and wine than water anyway. Others drank just water. So it isn't the fruit, it isn't the wine and it isn't the water." Chalvari told them. Rahkesh had to admire how well organized they were. It had only been six days since the first case.

"How quickly do they die again?" Silas asked.

"Three hours to four days, only a handful have lived longer than that." Chalvari said.

"Can you heal them?"

"No. No luck at all. None of our magics work." _That_ got their attention. Magic didn't work. There weren't many diseases magic didn't work on. And what magic didn't work on muggle healing did.

"Oh crap." Silas said.

XXX

The city went into an immediate quarantine. The people from the other cities who usually came up the stone road through the mountains were turned back by the patrols and guards who had been caught outside when the city shut itself off. They were the ones who had been away when the prisoner came in, and they hadn't come back until after the illness started. They set up a guard post across the road and refused anyone entrance to the city. With the stone doors locked shut no one left.

The warrior city of Xuelhuala sent down one hundred warriors to surround and protect Vailape, and to keep everything and everyone away while the disease ran through the city.

The dead were buried in a massive communal grave just outside the city. The guards kept to a good distance while groups from within the city carried the bodies out and dumped them into the grave. They covered it over and went back in, taking their shovels with them. After they left the guards used their own shovels to dig a new grave, then moved away again as the body carriers filled it.

Inside those not yet sick were sent into a different part of the city, as far away from the hospital as possible. Only those helping the healers were admitted, and many of them came in through a back entrance to brew potions, then pushed the potions through a tunnel that ran from the lab to the healers rooms, and left. As little contact as possible.

The three vampires were immune, and being vampires they couldn't even carry the disease on their bodies for log enough to transmit it. They were the only safe contact from with in the hospital to the rest of the city. The three of them kept the lists of the dead and escorted new cases into the hospital.

Deciding that the healers needed his help Rahkesh moved into the healers wing. In the following few weeks he saw more death then he would have ever seen battling the death eaters.

The 93 mortality figure quickly went up to 98 mortality. Rahkesh took on the task of helping Xeri and Nic to brew potions from medicinal plants in hopes of slowing or stopping the illness.

The worst, Rahkesh decided, was the children. Children as young as two came in, alone and confused and sick. Most of them died within a day. The slightly older children died fast too, coughing and choking on blood and vomit. The adults held out longer, being very healthy, but they too succumbed to the disease. The hospital smell so strongly of death that many people had panic attacks upon entering, or starting vomiting from the smell.

With the facilities overwhelmed even the front waiting room became filled with stricken people lying on pallets on the floor. The mess was beyond even the magic-wielding healers to keep up with and the floor became stained with blood and vomit.

One problem was that they had trouble telling when someone was in the early stages of the plague decimating the city, or if it was just a headache and something minor. Here Rahkesh's growing telepathic magical abilities came in useful. He taught himself to sense whether or not it was the plague, since the deadly disease had a distinctive feel to it. And more than one person was quickly moved to a separate room when it was realized that they didn't yet have the plague and should be kept separate from the hundreds who did.

It was Rahkesh who came up with the idea of injecting a potion into the blood stream. And it was he who decided that blood from a survivor (of which there were very few) might be able to cure the sick. Several days of practice were needed but he and his two new friends quickly learned to send pulses of magic into the blood taken from the survivors, enchanting it with all the healing energy they could.

"The only problem is that cutting someone open and poring blood on a bleeding wound doesn't sound like it is going to help." An exhausted Chalvari told him when they discussed the idea.

"We don't do that, we need to inject it into a vein." Rahkesh told him.

"How do we do that?" The healer asked.

"I have no idea." Rahkesh admitted.

It was Nic who found the answer. While sorting potions ingredients he came across the thorns of one of the rain forest plants. Thorns that when dried in the sun became hollow as the toxins in them drained out. Daray and Silas were quickly dispatched with a message for the Xuelhuala warriors to find as many of the thorns as possible.

"Will that work do you think?" Nic asked as they examined one of the hollow thorns.

"Possibly." Rahkesh said, picking up a hollow vine and magically sealing it to the hollow thorn. The other end of the vine was place in the bottom of a larger clay container of magically enhanced blood. Rahkesh eyed the thorn doubtfully and then transfigured it to be thinner. It was much too thick for a vein naturally. Chalvari directed them to one very sick man.

He didn't even notice as they slid the thorn into his arm. Rahkesh and Nic let the more experienced healer do this. Not practiced at hitting a vein they wouldn't know even if they did get it right. Rahkesh used the charm designed to show injury to track the foreign blood, which showed up bright red on the glowing skin with the charm. It was in the vein and was quickly moving. Not sure how much to give him Chalvari decided to risk too much rather than too little.

But the man died anyway. And so did the next dozen test cases. No amount of magic or potions seemed to make any difference. Two weeks into the plague half the city had died and of the remainder half were sick.

The Chachapoyaro had an excellent communication system of massive drums placed in small citadels atop the mountain ridges. A message in drum code was sent from one city's drum to the nearest ridge-top drum and from there the sound carried, bouncing off the mountains to the next station where a drummer listened, recorded the message, and then sent it out again to the next drummer. The citadels were built in the mouth of each of the valley's heading away from the city, so that depending upon which valleys the message traveled through it would reach a different city.

With the news that one of their cities had been hit by an incurable plague the drums were busy constantly, messages from healers and city officials from all of the other nineteen cities thundering through the mountains continuously. It sounded like a massive continuous thunderstorm or dynamite going off deep in the mountains. Soon enough people were complaining of headaches from the sound as well as the plague.

Every night the messages from the other cities would pause and the messengers from Vailape went up to the drum tower atop the highest building at the back of the city up in the mountains. For hours the drums on the mountain citadels pounded out the day's death toll to the other cities. From city to city the increasingly bad messages were spread.

The desperate healers tried everything to save their patients. Sharahak even tried drinking infected blood, trying to filter out the sickness and drink only that, but it didn't work. They tried bleeding the sick and then giving them blood from those that survived or hadn't gotten sick, with no success. The sorcerers tried every magic they knew, but nothing could stop the sick from dying.

"If it continues this way there'll be only a hundred or so of us left." Nic said anxiously as they watched another procession of bodied being removed. "Of course, it will mean that the survivors are immune, and their descendants will be too, so this disease won't be a problem anymore. I suppose that's a good thing."

"If we can keep it from spreading to the other cities that's enough." Rahkesh said calmly. "I doubt that this disease survives long outside the human body. Once it is over and we're sure that no one is carrying it then people from the other cities and move here."

"I suppose. I just wish there was a way to cure people. Everyone starts to panic at the slightest headache now. And why haven't we gotten sick? We've certainly been around the dying long enough." Nic asked.

"No idea. Some people might be naturally immune. And you're studying magic and fighting and healing right?" Nic nodded. "The physically fit are healthier, and with all the healing magics you've been doing, added to the other magics, you've probably got enough magic in you to fight it off." Rahkesh theorized.

"Probably not that. The second in command of the healers died yesterday." Nic replied.

"Have any of your family fallen ill?" Rahkesh asked, abruptly feeling a little guilty, he knew nothing about either Xeri or Nic's families. Nic shook his head.

"My parents are two of the Xuelhuala warriors." He explained. Well, at least he didn't have to worry, Rahkesh thought, his parents were probably among those outside the city right now.

"What about Xeri?"

"Her aunt died, her mother is fine." Nic said.

On the third week, around mid day, all drum activity ceased abruptly, halfway through an incoming message. Those that understood the drum code stopped what they were doing in the hospital to listen.

"What is it?" Rahkesh asked Nic.

"They cut off halfway through. And I can hear faint drums, someone is cutting in, only the warrior cities can do that, or emergency messages _to_ them. Their messages take precedence over everything else." Nic replied.

Suddenly the air was filled with the thunderous booming of drums. From the three valleys that ran back into the mountains the drums sent out the same message. The Inca had attacked Huerlap, a city twelve days journey south of Vailape.

That afternoon orders came in by drum from Xuelhuala. To remove the staircase that led down the wall into the rainforest. The Xuelhuala warrior patrols had spotted Inca armies on the move, packing up, everyone, the entire civilization, and starting up into the mountains.

Armies did not move very far from home. Getting supplies was too hard. Instead the entire civilization went. Now several thousand Incas were on the move towards the mountain cities. The vanguard made up of the best fighting force the Inca could muster was traveling several days ahead of the general populace. They were supplied by llamas and carried enough supplies for a long siege and to start a new settlement. They had already hit Huerlap and where they went next would depend upon their success there. Guarded like Vailape was with the same type of massive unassailable wall Huerlap was not a promising target. Xuelhuala had dispatched four hundred warriors to Huerlap to aid in the battle and expected to be successful.

The next day another message came through, the Inca had quickly been soundly defeated, but a second, larger, army was headed for Vailape. With an elite Xuelhuala patrol keeping watch over their progress. Rahkesh, stuck in the hospital, didn't get to the meeting the surviving city elders held. Daray and Silas stopped by afterwards to give everyone in the hospital some idea of what was happening.

"I have to say, that those Xuelhuala warriors know what they're doing. They're responsible for the security of ten of the twenty cities and they really take that seriously." Daray began with real admiration. "They designed all of the defenses and have forced each city to maintain them. The area below the wall is cleared of all growth, always, right down to the rock. You can't get within two hundred feet of the wall without being seen. The ground is cut sloped so that dragging a ladder up is not a good idea. But not sloped enough to provide any protection from the archers up top. The forest below is filled with enough traps to kill off several hundred. There's the darts rigged in the trees to kill when the tripwires are snapped. Pit traps filled with poison tipped stakes, shards of glass coated in poison waiting in sacks to fall when someone cuts the ropes holding them, which can be done with an arrow from atop the wall. They've even cut the foliage in the front nearest the wall so that you can't hide in the trees and they've got sacks full of venomous insects and snakes ready to dump on anyone who attacks."

Rahkesh considered his options, then wiped his hands off and turned to the two vampires.

"I can help with that. Tell the city elders that I can tell the snakes to attack and kill as many as the Inca as they can." Rahkesh said. He was surprised when neither vampire looked at all startled about that revelation.

"It's nice you finally decided to tell us. We already told them you that can speak to snakes." Silas said.

"It's okay Rahkesh, we figured that out a long time ago. And you ought to know that vampires don't consider anyone dark because of something as silly as a language." Daray told him, Rahkesh nodded and sighed.

"I know. It's just that I've gotten used to hiding that ability from everyone. What did they say?"

"They want you to wait until the Inca show up, then they'll release the snakes." Daray said.

"Wait, you can _speak to snakes?_" Nic asked, incredulous.

"Yes. It's a very unusual magical ability." Rahkesh explained. Dropping his eyes as the healers seated around the table where they were eating stared at him.

"Wow." Xeri said.

"Which is why that snake never bites you." Chalvari said, nodding slowly. "Glad you're on our side Rahkesh. Speaking snakes. I wish I could." Rahkesh smiled, relieved that they had taken it so well.

"We've got eighteen to twenty-four days. The Incas are below us and can't use the mountain roads. Xuelhuala is dispatching a larger force to join us. They'll be here in fifteen days." Silas said. "In the mean time the guards and warriors who are outside the city are going down into the forest by a back route to set up more traps. We're going with them tomorrow"

"I'll come with you then." Rahkesh said.

"You could be carrying the disease." Chalvari said, shaking his head, "you'll have to stay here." Rahkesh thought about that.

"I don't think so, I can feel the disease telepathically, and I don't have it." Chalvari already knew that Rahkesh had proved several times that he could tell if someone was sick with the disease or something else. So he just nodded. Then Rahkesh got an idea.

"Silas, Daray, can you tell by the taste of someone's blood if they're sick?" He asked.

"Of course…oh…why on earth didn't we think of that?" Daray asked, realizing what Rahkesh was thinking.

"Everyone healthy could be moved to separate quarters so they don't get sick." Silas said softly, "why didn't _we_ think of that? We're the ones who drink blood."

"You're a genius. Sharahak?" Chalvari asked.

"We could. We'll begin with everyone in the city." The older vampire decided, "Daray you go through everyone in the hospital, there are probably people here who are sick with things other than this disease, we'll need to separate those from the rest. And check the healers." He and Silas swept out the door, Xeri went running to tell the other healers. Rahkesh, knowing that if any vampire drank from him they'd know who he was, left quietly to get his weapons. It didn't matter if the vampire was trying to read his mind or not, they'd still notice how powerful his blood was. And it would be fairly obvious who he was. And if they didn't already know (and he suspected that they might suspect who he really was, and he wouldn't be surprised if Daray had known for months and just not told Silas) then he wasn't going to give anyone the opportunity to find out.

Another drum message came thundering in through the mountains. The elite Xuelhuala patrol had reported in, the Inca were nearing the river where the guards of Vailape were planning on leaving their traps.

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Okay, less boring chapter.

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No this is NOT the black plague or any variation there of. Since I made up the symptoms and the black plague isn't airborne.

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Please review. Lets see if we can have a review from everyone who reads this, including all the lurkers out there.

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	15. Chapter 15

Thank you to everyone who reviewed. The response to the last chapter was wonderful. I really appreciate it. Four hours after I posted that chapter I had fifteen reviews! Thank you so much!

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Chapter 15

"Rahkesh I'm not sure if these traps are going to work right, how about you test one out?" Xeri asked innocently. Rahkesh snorted and carefully stepped over the trip wires she'd just laid out.

"Do I look like I was born yesterday?" He asked, studying the ropes the trip wires ran to, ropes that were holding several large boulders in place. When the wires were pulled the boulders would swing down across the trail, effectively killing anyone they hit. Xeri shrugged and grinned, her scars making the effect a little strange.

"Always worth a try." She said.

"Tell me something – if the Inca do get past all of the obstacles we can come up with, how are they going to get into Vailape? The enchantments-" she cut him off.

"The Inca have sorcerers of their own." Xeri said, "in all the years our cities have been hidden away the Inca are our only real enemies. Other tribes have been a problem because they know we're here, but the Inca might actually get in, despite being mostly non magical."

"How would their sorcerers know how to break the enchantments?" Rahkesh asked curiously.

"Magic. They kill people and use the power created by the death." Xeri said shortly, and Rahkesh sensed he wouldn't get annoying else from her. So the Inca had a rudimentary mix of blood magic, soul magic, and necromancy that they were using to bring down the powerful magics that hid the Chachapoyaro cities. Xeri turned and headed back to where they were regrouping for the evening meal, Rahkesh, not having been into the forest before and being very poorly oriented, followed closely. It was dark under the thick canopy, with very little sunlight actually reaching the ground. But it was hot and humid and the smell of the plants and flowers assaulted his nose. And every trail looked the same as the last one.

"Okay, how do the Inca move so fast if they don't have roads?" Rahkesh asked.

"The Chachapoya. Our non-magical kin. They built an amazing system of roads, much like what we have up in the mountains. The Inca are using them to move around." Xeri replied, "this way." She added, pointing out a near invisible trail that led back to the camp they were using just below the walls.

"Why haven't the Chachapoya fought with them?" Rahkesh asked, their hosts were very close-mouthed about their origins and their non-magical cousins.

"They are our ancestors, they started with leave the area not long ago. Their numbers have been steadily decreasing. The Inca cannot pass the Chachapoya stronghold, and so they won't try until they know the Chachapoya have withdrawn completely from that area. While they wait their sorcerers have discovered us and decided that they ought to try to conquer us. They don't know we're all magical. They haven't fought with anything larger than a patrol; well they hadn't until a few days ago. And now that they were defeated they know what we're capable of. But the army coming after us here isn't in communication with the other army. The Xuelhuala have removed all their messengers. So this army doesn't know what to expect." Xeri grinned again, "I expect this will be fun."

Rahkesh chuckled at that; they certainly had planned a lethal welcoming party. He sidestepped a thorny bush and tried to follow the trail. Nic and Xeri had been teaching them to track in the forests closer to Vailape, but the trails there were better defined than these. And easier on the feet. Being barefoot for three months had produced some amazingly tough calluses, but the Chachapoyaro had "foot pads" as Silas called them, and frequently walked right over sticks and thorns that made Rahkesh's feet hurt.

The river gurgled softly a few yards away. It was too wide to jump, but there wasn't much current except in the middle and swimming across wouldn't be too hard. But it would be very painful. The Xuelhuala warriors had a sadistic streak a mile wide. So did the Vailape guards, and so did the vampires. The three groups had spent the past few hours trying to outdo each other with the sheer nastiness of their creations and ideas. The Xuelhuala had gathered over a hundred venomous water snakes, and Rahkesh had given the snakes orders to attack any human they could get. In addition to the snakes there were also several dozen electric eels waiting in massive wooden tubs to be dumped into the water. Electric eels grew to about two meters in length and would happily apply a five hundred volt shock to anyone who got in their way.

The Vailape guards had released snapping turtles, which were native. They had also rounded up whole schools of piranhas, hundreds of them, also in holding tanks until the Inca appeared. Rahkesh had scoured the river for miles and come up with a dozen massive anacondas.

But in the nasty things to put in the river competition the vampires had won hands down. After all, it was hard to compete with giant leeches and candirus. The candiru was also known as the carnero, and the urethra fish, because of its tendency to enter the urethra of human bodies and, with its sharp spines, get stuck there, feeding on flesh and blood. The vampires had transfigured several hundred pebbles into candiru and had them in a holding tank. The Chachapoyaro had been so horrified when the snickering vampires showed them what they'd come up with that Daray suggested that all they would have to do was threaten the Inca with the parasitic little fish and they'd run away.

For the land-based nasty surprises competition the Chachapoyaro were determined to win over the smug vampires. Nic had taken a group of guards earlier in the day and come back that evening to say that they had created acid-spraying devices that could be triggered by trip wires. They were really just wooden tubes filled with acid, with a heavy rock on top. When the wire was tripped the rock would fall into the tube, forcing the acid out the dozen or so small nozzles at the other end. The acid was used for engraving metal and the tubes had to be enchanted to withstand it.

Not about to be outdone by the guards and their students the Xuelhuala had created tiny darts filled with water that had cholera and other deadly bacteria in it. They had tested puddles and water in ditches on their prisoners until they found some that killed them. The water had then been placed into the darts so that they could be shot from blowguns into cooking pots. They had also rigged darts on bowstrings in the woods, to fire when an arrow from atop the wall cut the rope that held the darts back. The Xuelhuala had also somehow come up with enough spiders to sink a ship. Apparently dangerous spiders were cleaned out of the cities once a year, and kept, alive, for use in situations like this. Brazilian wandering spiders, and yellow sac spiders had been fairly abundant for years, and so the Xuelhuala released all that they could find.

The vampires picked out, surprise surprise, vampire bats. They also gathered scorpions from the mountains and the forest, to put on the other side of the river so that the Inca would have to get through them before they could cross.

Aside from the living dangers everyone tried to out do each other with various non-living traps. Snares, trip wires, pit traps, dead trees rigged to fall on people, acid sprayers, swinging boulders to drop from the trees, and nets covered in poisoned needles were so thick in the forest it would be amazing if any of the first two or three hundred Inca made it within a half mile of the wall alive.

That evening they settled around some campfires, eating and comparing notes on the day's work. It would have been a tossup as to who had the nastiest idea, until Rahkesh presented his idea – powdered glass. Or, more precisely, glass ground between two rocks until the glass shards were almost too small to see, but glass shards of any size could cause serious harm, especially if they were inhaled. Rahkesh would scatter his into the wind from atop the wall. An enchanted wind, a wind that would take the glass directly to the Inca army, and only to them. The glass that wasn't inhaled could be summoned back to be reused.

"Memo to self, never anger snake boy here." Silas muttered as he stared at the sacks filled with powdered glass Rahkesh had been grinding up. Rahkesh grinned wolfishly.

"So, did I win?" The warriors and guards staring at him in a sort of sickened, stupefied, horror started to respond.

"I should think so, you are one twisted young man."

"Evil.

"Inhaling glass shards…that's just gruesome."

Rahkesh shrugged, in truth he didn't much like the idea, but he liked the Chachapoyaro and the Inca had already utilized biological warfare when they sent in the infected, contagious man to the city, knowing he would be interrogated and get close enough to the Chachapoyaro to infect them. The death toll had hit four hundred that day, and he wanted revenge.

"Knew you were a true sadist." Daray chuckled, "can we send it off now? Hit them while they're still on the other side of the river?" The vampire's enthusiasm for horrifically painful destruction made everyone wince.

"Whenever the people creating the enchanted wind are ready." Rahkesh replied, "and this is way beyond sadistic. The effects of this glass are going to be grisly; they'll get into the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the skin, and the lungs. They'll swallow it in their food and breathe it in through the air. Sadistic isn't a strong enough word."

"No I suppose not, and who is going to be enchanting the air?" Daray asked. He and Silas had yet to recover from the effects of drinking contaminated blood while testing the Chachapoyaro for the deadly disease. All three vampires had been weak and feeling ill ever since. The effects of the bad blood would wear off, and could be cured by replacing the bad blood with good blood. All three had been draining their own blood, by slitting their wrists, and then hunting to replace it. Daray had wanted to go after the Inca, but the others had decided that they should wait. In fact there was nothing stopping the Inca advance as they neared the city. The hope was that the psychological impact of a long march through unfamiliar forest, nervous and jumpy and looking everywhere for enemies, would tire the Incas before they arrived.

"Nycahalia said that Kalahimran and a few of his students were coming to help, the ones that are left anyway." Nic said. None of the four sorcerers who were going to help send them home had fallen ill, but they had lost most of their students, the ones that were being trained in only magic.

With the city now separated into two groups, those that were sick and those that weren't, those that weren't sick were beginning to get ready for war. With the Xuelhuala army still several days away and the Inca approaching rapidly thanks to the old Chachapoya roads it seemed more and more likely that the city would face the initial attack with no more than what was available right then. Fortunately the Xuelhuala did indeed take their responsibilities very seriously and, quite literally, forced the cities under their protection to be ready for war at any time. Hundreds of thousands of arrows were stored in the city armory, along with bows, shields, staves, blowguns, millions of darts and knives. They even had some small trebuchets and sharpened rocks to fling from them. The staircase that usually led down the walls was removable, hidden holes in the solid rock had held metal bars upon which the stairs balanced. With the stairs and bars gone, and the holes hidden by rock bars the wall was impossible to scale. The Chachapoyaro engineers who had built the city and wall had been amazingly skilled. The rocks had been cut and smoothed out so perfectly that, even without the aid of mortar, it was still impossible to stick a knife blade in between the rocks, anywhere on the wall. And, if by chipping away at the rock, anyone did manage to climb it there was another defense. Near the top of the wall there were certain tiny stone blocks that could be pulled back into the underground rooms behind. From here things like hot vegetable oils, boiling water, melted metal, and arrows could be flung down into the faces of those climbing. In addition the ground near the wall-top was kept clear of any plants that grew to be more than a foot or two tall, leaving open space for the defenders to move around. Behind the major wall, but before the city, and Xuelhuala warriors had erected a smaller wall that had to be climbed, with razor sharp downward facing spikes that were twisted about and sharpened until they closely resembled barbed wire. This stuff was, of course, painted with the most deadly poisons available.

In the defense mechanisms, as with everything else, their hosts showed a level of advanced abilities that no one would ever expect from such an ancient culture. Deep in the city there was a shaft cut through the solid rock that led directly downwards. At about a hundred feet below the surface the shaft was filled with water. To descend they had climbed into a small, birdcage like, apparatus that had been lowered down the shaft and into the water. Airtight glass had kept them dry all the way down. The shaft slowly narrowed and at the bottom the elevator had fitted into the shaft so well that the seal was airtight. Then the water below had been drained away by opening a drain that let the water out several hundred feet lower near the river, leaving the exit dry. They had opened the elevator door and stepped out and down one step into a damp but dry area. Then they had opened a well-sealed door, after it closed the elevator had been brought up again, letting the water back to the bottom. It was impossible to enter without being in control of the elevator, and that control was in the most secure spot at the center of the city. A truly ingenious creation that provided an entrance or exit to the city that the Inca would never discover, or if they did, drown trying to enter.

Outside they had set up a small campsite for a few days. Once the Inca attacked those in the city who the vampires had proclaimed healthy (and who were now in isolation) would join them to help fight. The final piece of genius the Xuelhuala had come up with for defending their cities was really fairly simple – everyone was trained to fight and required to keep in reasonably good fighting shape until they were too old to do so.

Dinner was fish and a few plants whose names Rahkesh couldn't recall. Two of the guards had brought wooden flutes with them and were playing, the haunting notes ringing out over the forest. Rahkesh relaxed by one of the fires with Xeri, Nic, Silas, Daray, and Xeri's older sister Vey. The Chachapoyaro teaching them to play one of the Chachapoyaro board games with small fresh water seashells and wooden circular board. It was a bit like mancala except it was played by up to ten people. As the sun was setting a low growl from among the tall grasses startled them. Moments later a black furry face poked through the plants at the edge of the forest that surrounded the city.

"Nuri?" Silas asked, shocked, as the young panther pushed his way through the thick plants and walked over to them, sniffing curiously at the fire, and jumping back when sparks flew from it.

"I thought you left him inside the city?" Daray asked.

"I thought I did too." Silas replied, standing from where he had been lying between Vey and Daray and walked towards his panther familiar. "Nuri how did you get here?" The panther nuzzled his hands and promptly lay down in Silas place between Daray and Vey by the fire. "Nuri!" Silas complained, Nuri began to clean his claws, pointedly ignoring his master. Silas flopped down again, using Nuri for a pillow and resting his legs over his cousin's. "If you're going to take my spot it's the least you can do." He told the panther when Nuri nudged his head. Nuri sighed audibly and rolled over a bit, and dropped his head onto Vey and purred. Vey laughed and scratched him under his chin and rubbed his ears. The panther purred and reached up to rest a paw on her cheek.

"He's such a flirt." Silas complained, "and everyone spoils him rotten for it." Vey glared at him over the panther.

"He is not rotten. He's adorable." She told Nuri's owner sternly. Nuri nuzzled her hand and purred again. Vey cooed softly at the big cat. Silas rolled his eyes and gave up.

From around Nuri's neck Sygra unwrapped herself and slithered slowly around the panther and vampire, past Daray and Vey, over Nic (who was lying with his head on Rahkesh's legs) to Rahkesh.

_Sygra. Why did you come out?_ Rahkehs hissed softly as he picked the snake up and held her to his shoulder; Sygra wrapped herself around him and settled her head on his shoulder. The others watched with interest as he rubbed the back of the snake's head and hissed softly to her.

_Nuri was trying to get out. So I came too. I got bored. _

_There will be a war soon._

_Oh good. I haven't bitten any humans in a long time. Who can I kill?_

_You really are a vicious creature. I'll let you know who you can attack as soon as I know._

_Vicious is good. _

_How did Nuri get out?_

_**I** got out. He came with me. _

_Oh. I thought the walls of the city were too enchanted for you to go through._

_I thought they were, they're not. Not anymore. Haven't been since I shed my last skin._

_Interesting. You're powers grow with each skin you shed. Anything else new?_ Rahkesh asked, once again wishing he knew exactly where Sygra came from and what species she was.

_I'm developing a second set of venom sacks. _

_Another type of venom? You've got three!_

_Yes, apparently I'll have another soon. _

_You never cease to amaze. _

_Thank you._

"Rahkesh? Did she tell you how they got out?" Nic asked.

"Yeah, Sygra…well she can go through solid walls." Rahkesh admitted, resigned to giving up another secret that he'd kept hidden for safety's sake. The more surprises he had the better. Oh well, he would leave three of them behind soon enough and the vampires…he trusted them more than he trusted even Moody. Odd how that had happened without his realizing it.

"Through walls?" Xeri asked.

"Yes, and apparently the enchantments on the city weren't enough to stop her. Don't worry, she didn't damage them." Rahkesh said. Sygra hissed softly and gave the impression of preening, as much as a snake could anyway.

"And what does this gorgeous creature do?' Vey asked, still petting Nuri. The great cat was looking up at her with his patented (aren't I just gorgeous?) look. And Vey was falling for it, as everyone seemed to.

"He isn't magical. Or if he is he's never shown any such ability." Silas said. There was a shrill cheeping and Daray's fire-breathing vampire bat swooped down to land on Daray's shoulder on all fours.

"Is that a vampire bat?" Vey asked.

"Yes. He breathes fire too, and he's not the sort you find around here." Daray said. Satan was larger than the South American vampire bats and he had less fur, and a scale-like skin along his back with hard ridges like a dragon. Why non-magical vampire bats were found in South America, and the magical ones in Australia, was a very good question that no one even in their time had managed to answer.

Satan rubbed his head against Daray, then bit into his owner's ear and began to lap at the blood. Daray ignored the surprised looks he was getting and let the bat do as he would.

The wooden flutes continued to sing their eerie notes, the group lay back watching the stars, the game forgotten.

XXX

Late that night, or early that morning, depending upon whom you asked, the elite Xuelhuala patrol that had followed the Inca arrived in the camp at a loping run. Having taken a back route through the mountains they had avoided the walls and city and gone straight to the fighters camped outside. Rahkesh, on the morning watch with Nic, watched them run into the camp. Despite three hundred miles of rough travel alongside their foes the patrol was moving at a steady loping run and looked alert and ready for anything.

"They'll be at the river by the time the sun gets above the trees." One of the warriors told them.

"We will need to have people down there to observe." Someone behind them said. Rahkesh and Nic turned to see Kalahimran with three of his students. "Rahkesh we will save that glass of yours for later." The one-eyed sorcerer told him. Rahkesh nodded.

"Daray, Silas, and I all have the ability to become invisible." Rahkesh told him, the three had discussed it during the night and decided that it wouldn't hurt if their hosts knew about the ability given to them by the Yeck caps. The Chachapoyaro warriors were shocked.

"_Invisible?_" Kalahimran said softly, his single eye staring at him, Rahkesh nodded.

"We could go an observe them, but we don't know our way around too well. Sharahak has the ability to use his telepathy to avoid notice. He could come with us, and one or two others." Rahkesh suggested. Sharahak had woken up and nodded his agreement.

"Nic, you will go with them." Kalahimran decided. "Find a place not too far from the river where you can see everything. And do not get caught."

"Their sorcerers are getting unstable. They'll kill any prisoners, and they're trying to develop magical rituals by killing prisoners in the most horrific ways they can think of." One of the patrol told them. "Take poison with you so if they do capture you you'll die before they can start."

Rahkesh had his trunk with him and he had poisons in his backpack, he handed Nic one, the vampires wouldn't be killed by them. Nic led them into the forest and down a trail that took them in an arc around the area where most of the traps were and to the river.

"There are trails here so the Inca will likely cross here." Nic told them.

"Nic why did they choose you instead of one of the warriors?" Silas asked.

"Two years ago I helped create all of the trails and hiding spots in this part of the forest, I know my way around and the team I was working with are all dead." Nic replied

Up ahead the brown colored water sparkled in the early morning sun. The opposite bank had been cleared a bit and the spot Nic had chosen was halfway up a small hill where they could see a large stretch of the river that the Inca were likely to cross. There were trees right in front of them with thick leaves, but Nic pulled a few of the branches around until they could see clearly, without being easily visible themselves. The sun was rising and the air was getting hotter, it was going to be a sweltering day.

Below the Inca appeared on the opposite riverbank. One of them was shaking and slowly collapsed, a snake slithered away from around his ankle. Up stream there was a series of splashes as all the various creatures were released.

Now more Inca warriors decked out in snakeskin, cloth, and gold with red and white tattoos ran forward carrying canoes. They put the canoes into the water, just as Rahkesh saw his anacondas enter the river. More and more canoes, hundred of them, the water was so thick with canoes people were walking across. Then the anacondas struck.

Thick coils looped around canoes and crushed them like dried leaves, loops of thick muscle dragged the Inca, screaming, into the water. In moments the hundred or so canoes were gone down river, leaving the Incas floundering about.

Then the screaming began. Horrible, horrible screaming like nothing Rahkesh had ever heard. Even with the cruciatus curse he didn't believe he'd ever heard such screams. The piranhas had arrived first and after days without food they were eating the Inca alive.

Some tried to swim across, and few almost made it, but then the electric eels arrived with the poisonous snakes, leeches, and candirus close behind. The Inca had no choice but to cross, if they wished to reach Vailape, and the ones in front were being pushed in by the crush of the army behind. They had charged at the river at a run, and now they couldn't stop in time. Urged on by their commanders warriors dove into the water and were immediately attacked.

Eventually they would overwhelm the creatures in the water, there were just too many of them, but the first dozen or so that they watched make it across were killed almost instantly by the traps and creatures waiting on land.

Watching the Inca in the hot air, having charmed all the biting insects to leave them alone, listening to the horrific screams Rahkesh began to get the impression that they were being watched. Had they missed something? Had Inca crossed earlier and were now somewhere nearby?

"Shrahak, how about we go up the hill to get a better look?" Rahkesh asked. The older vampire nodded and rose silently. Rahkesh went invisible and followed him up the hill. There was only one trail and it had not been walked in a long time. They had to push the thick forest growth aside, trying not to move anything tall enough to be seen above the trees. At the top of the hill they turned to look back. The hilltop had been burned a few years before in a lightning storm and the growth was only a few feet tall all around them. Rahkesh became visible again they stood out clearly against the blue sky, but the Inca were too far down under the thick canopy to see them.

There was something moving in the trees, something very big and definitely not human. For a moment Rahkesh thought that the long winding thin form was a massive snake. Then it rose and a massive set of wings and a reptilian head lifted above the trees.

A dragon. The Incas had a _dragon_ with them. How had they managed _that_?

"A dragon!" Sharahak gasped. Rahkesh watched as the jungle-green creature turned, and then lifted it wings and flapped. It had to be visible from the wall top, but not from where the other three were.

"Sharahak, we don't have much cover right here. It can see us." Rahkesh warned. Too late. The dragon was lifting into the air and it was headed right for them. It wasn't nearly as large as the Hungarian Horntail he had fought, but it's shrieking scream was loud enough to make Rahkesh's ears ring and hurt.

They both ducked, throwing themselves flat as a wave of fire shot at them. Sharahak cried out and grabbed his shoulder as his shirt was scorched and turned to ash. The smell the charred skin and hair and bone filled the air. Through the blackened shreds of skin turned to ash Rahkesh caught sight of the white of bone. Sharahak rolled to put the fire out and then looked up. Rahkesh was already standing again, wand out, ready. The dragon wasn't more than thirty feet long from nose to hip, with another twenty feet of tail, and a bright green with dark purple. It was much more snake-like than any dragon he had seen, indeed its head bore a remarkable resemblance to that of a Basilisk. Fairly young, and probably unused to battle.

The dragon circled once, screaming and roaring, flying so low its tail almost dragged along the hillside. Then it turned sharply, bending nearly in half, and dove at them. This time there was no avoiding the fire. Rahkesh threw up a massive shield and dragged Sharahak down with him. The vampire screamed as his ruined shoulder hit the earth. The fire washed by them on all sides. And the dragon was gone, going high up and turning for another attack.

This time the fire was followed by claws, four sets of them. Rahkesh's shield held just long enough to save them from the fire, though the heat was physically painful. Then the claws hit, Rahkesh's seeker reflexes saved him, though his backpack was ripped off and landed several feet away. And immediately burst into flames on the charred burning ground. But Sharahak was already badly burned on one shoulder and didn't move fast enough. The meter-long claws ripped into Sharahak.

The vampire didn't scream, he didn't make any sound at all as one massive claw went all the way through him from front to back, and the point of another nearly ripped his arm off. It went through the muscle, and Rahkesh could hear bone snap. Then it slipped from the arm, and as the dragon rose the other claw slid out of Sharahak and he crumpled, still soundless, to the ground.

"Conjunctivitis!" Rahkesh said softly, putting everything he had into guiding the spell. It hit on of the dragon's eyes, prompting a roar of rageand a huge blast of fire. Clearly that wasn't going to be enough.

"Incendio!" Rahkesh's silent fire spell met the dragon's fire, creating a massive burst of flame. The dragon redoubled its efforts and Rahkesh poured everything he had into the fire spell. Across the hilltop the dragon landed and continued its flames, Rahkesh matched it with his own fire.

The ball of fire produced where the two sets of flames met grew, glowing so brightly Rahkesh was forced to close his eyes. The ground was burned, charred, turned to ash, and slowly began to melt and vaporize with the intensity of the heat.

When a breeze blew through the flames leaped into a wall of fire stretching across the hill. From the wall top the guards could see the center of the fireball changing color as it grew hotter and hotter. The fire was so bright that down below the canopy even the Incas could see its glow and feel the waves of horrible heat emanating from it.

Rahkesh's clothes began to singe and he could feel his hair crackling and beginning to turn to ash from the intense heat. His face hurt, his whole body hurt. Silently and wandlessly Rahkesh brought up a shield to keep him and Sharahak from being burned. Freed from the pain of the intense heat he could concentrate better.

And slowly he began to win. An older more experienced dragon would have disengaged and attacked again, but this one didn't know that and kept up its jets of flame until they had been burned back almost all the way to its mouth. Finally it dodged and stopped. Rahkesh stopped his own spell and rotated to face the dragon again.

The dragon's claws tore up huge chunks of soil and plants as it clawed the ground and roared. Trying to intimidate him. Rahkesh planted himself beside Sharahak's unmoving body and waited. The dragon screamed at him. Rahkesh snapped his wand out and threw a single bolt of lightning at it. The dragon ducked and shook off the lightning that hit its wing. The air crackling and thunder rumbled dully.

Rahkesh waited, facing the dragon. Carefully he kept from meeting its eyes; that would be considered a challenge by any predatory creature. But he didn't back down either. The dragon stood still and watched him in the same manner, eyes just slightly averted, but not going anywhere. Finally something had to give, Rahkesh relaxed his posture and sighed, and glanced at Sharahak before looking over at the city high above on the mountainside.

The battle momentarily paused the dragon took the moment to examine its wing where the lightning had struck, and then to carefully, delicately, rub its eye with one wing claw. The spell refused to wear off and eye remained closed.

The young dragon had scars, a lot of them. And the scars weren't made by other dragons. Rahkesh hadn't noticed before, but its scales were covered with long ugly scars. The Inca had had a difficult time controlling it then. Perhaps it would not want to go back to captivity with them. Rahkesh caught the dragon's eye briefly, and then bowed. The dragon watched, appearing vaguely confused, then it stepped forward.

Aware that Sharahak was dying at his feet and needed help soon. Rahkesh waited, watching the dragon, eyes again slightly averted, as it approached. It lowered its massive head and Rahkesh very slowly raised a hand, the dragon backed away, then moved forward again. When it got within reach Rahkesh undid the spell. The eye snapped open and the dragon froze.

"I am not your enemy." Rahkesh spoke softly. "I won't harm you." The dragon made an unusual sound. Rahkesh, going on a hunch, tried again. In Parseltounge.

_I am not your enemy._ He hissed, putting as much soothing power as he could into the words.

The dragon reared back with a scream of shock. Rahkesh didn't flinch. The dragon quieted and leaned forward. Unsure if it had understood or not Rahkesh took a chance and very slowly moved forwards, then reached up to heal the scorched skin at its nose where his fire had hurt it. Since it didn't react he then moved beside it and began to rub it just above the eye.

The dragon purred. And Rahkesh felt a vague pressure on his mind. Closing his eyes his took a claming breath and began to open his mind the way he did when he was trying to sense the vampires.

Enireth>

Rahkesh nearly fell over in shock at the voice that suddenly rumbled through his mind. He realized almost immediately what had happened. It had spoken to him. But dragons couldn't speak, everyone knew that. But this one had. But only after he had opened his mind and listened. Had he done something that had allowed him to hear it without realizing what he was doing? Wondering if perhaps it could hear him Rahkesh slowly reached out, it felt odd, like he was actually reaching with his mind searching for another presence.

Rahkesh.> He projected, the dragon raised its head and turned to focus both pale green eyes on him.

Humans do not speak.> This time Rahkesh heard him much more clearly.

This one does.> He replied. At his feet Sharahak moaned distracting both of them. My friend is hurting. I need to help him.> Much to his surprise the young dragon looked a bit guilty.

My apologies.> He said, but offered no explanation. Rahkesh didn't need one. Rahkesh knelt and examined the vampire. Sharahak wasn't healing.

He's going to die.> Rahkesh thought, without realizing he'd done so. The dragon watched the vampire, who wasn't breathing, and sensed Rahkesh's distress.

Here.> Rahkesh turned and the dragon carefully use done claw to cut into the soft tissue between two scales near one of his wing claws. Blood dripped out. The blood of my kind has amazing powers. My masters use it in potions. I think it heals injuries.> He sounded uncertain. Rahkesh conjured a small phial and collected the blood. Unsure of how to use it, but willing to take it anyway.

Suddenly all the hairs on the back of Rahkesh's neck stood on end, then he felt the approaching spell.

"Protego!" Too late to duck all he could manage was a shield before the blast of power from within the forest slammed into him.

The magic was like nothing he'd ever felt. It roared around him with an anger that was physically painful. Someone was screaming, many people were screaming, his whole body hurt. Images of blood and torn flesh flashed through his mind. Searing pain raced through his senses and a voice began to chant. Forcing himself to focus Rahkesh shut down his mind.

And the magic vanished. He was on his knees in the charred scorching hot earth beside Sharahak. Enireth was roaring and screaming as massive purple bolts of light hit him repeatedly. The Inca sorcerers wanted their dragon back.

Then the wet, bloodstained, ripped, poisoned, and battered Inca warriors breasted the hill at a run and charged, holding spears aloft, screaming war cries. Rahkesh had other priorities than fighting them. Sharahak needed help. The writhing dragon was still between them and the Inca; Rahkesh cast a charm on Sharahak and ran, the vampire floating behind him.

The Inca flooded into the forest. Rahkesh knew he wouldn't make it too the wall, so he didn't try. Nic had showed him a small hidden cave down at the base of the hill the day before, and he fled there now. Using wandless magic to move the boulder from in front of the entrance he tossed Sharahak inside and crawled in. With another touch of wandless magic the boulder rolled back into place across the entrance and dead leaves leaped up from the dirt to cover most of it.

The vampire was bleeding heavily. Not yet recovered from checking the blood of all the remaining people of Vailape the vast vampiric healing abilities were failing. Most of the internal damage had been healed, but not enough of it. In the glow from the conjured lights Rahkesh could see shards of broken bone hanging from Sharahak's arm, and his ripped guts showed far too much blood and intestines for the vampire to be able to heal. Sharahak was going to die if he didn't do something fast.

He still had the phial of dragon blood. But he didn't know much about any of the uses of dragon's blood. Though he knew that one of the twelve uses of dragon's blood was for a healing potion he didn't know what healing potion could possibly be brewed with it or how to make it. And he didn't have the time. What was he to do? Pour it on the injuries? But raw dragon blood had unusual effects. The least of which was that it could be lethal to vampires, it was one of the few things that was.

Sharahak needed blood, powerful blood. Rahkesh knew his blood was extremely powerful. But was it enough? He looked back at the phial of blood. Dragon's blood glows, he thought absently as he tried to think of something to do. Again his instincts presented an answer, and Rahkesh was learning to listen to them. He lifted the phial and drank it.

It felt like he had drunk acid. His throat and mouth hurt horribly, his _teeth_ hurt, then the pain descended into his stomach, and then quickly spread all over his body. Unable to even scream Rahkesh felt all his muscles helplessly stiffen and lock. He couldn't move he couldn't breathe, he couldn't see. Pressure built behind his eyes until he was sure they would explode. He could feel his heart rate speeding up until he thought for sure it would burst. The pain was worse than the cruciatus curse, a hundred times worse. His bones felt like they were on fire, he could feel his pulse pounding, each beat sending waves of fire through his body. His lungs hurt from lack of air. His skin felt hot, he was glowing, lighting up the small cave. There was light _under_ his skin. Dimly he realized he was vomiting everywhere. There were tears running from his eyes, he could feel them on his cheeks, but he couldn't see. Everything hurt, his body started to relax, but when he touched the ground his hands were to sensitive and he drew back shaking with pain. Then the seizures began. Rahkesh felt his head swing around and hit the wall, his legs and arms were jerking, and he had no control over them. He still couldn't see, and he couldn't hear anything. But he could feel the magic as the dragon's blood sank through the tissues of his stomach lining and merged with his blood.

Finally he managed to scream, his throat tearing as the sound forced its way out of him. Unknown to Rahkesh the sound was not even vaguely human. More like a cross between the roar of a dragon and the screech of a mortally wounded wyvern. The horrible scream that echoed up out of the ground could be heard far off in the depths of the city so loudly that the residents covered their ears to try to block the hideous noise. The Inca, hearing the sound of some creature roaring beneath the ground, fled into the forest, leaving the guard and warriors standing, hands over their ears. Every living creature in the rainforest capable of hearing fled in terror.

Then the pain was gone. As quickly as it had come it was gone. Leaving Rahkesh to slump to the floor, heaving as he vomited repeatedly and sobbing in reaction. He was shaking so badly he could hardly move, and his limbs felt too weak to support him. Rahkesh rolled, managing to stay clear of the vomit, to Sharahak. The vampire was nearly gone, but Rahkesh could sense life there. He pulled the vampire to him and drew a knife with a shaking hand. He shook so badly it took several tries to get the knife to his skin, then he cut into his palm, his battered nerves not even reacting, and dripped the blood into Sharahak's mouth. Dropping the knife Rahkesh waited, until finally the vampire instincts kicked in and Sharahak swallowed.

A few minutes later Rahkesh ripped a piece of cloth from the leg of his pants and wound it around his hand. Then he drew Sharahak up to his neck. The vampire sensed blood and lunged, skinning his fangs deep into Rahkesh's throat.

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Hmm. This was a fun chapter to write. Intense eh? More coming soon.

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Please review. Opinions, ideas, and general feedback from readers is what makes writers enjoy writing.

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	16. Chapter 16

TankerMDK – chill darlin' chill (pats on head) is my fic really so cliché that you would expect something like that? (pouts)

I've had three emails now about pairings for this story. If I decided to create any long-term pairings I'll let you know _way_ in advance. (Long-term, for my fics, is defined as anything more than a few days.)

Now that that is all sorted out…

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Chapter 16

The books on vampire bites always said that they were really painful. Now Rahkesh knew that the writers had never been bitten. It didn't hurt, though he had an extremely long sharp set of fangs deep in his neck it didn't hurt. That was weird. He could feel the teeth but no pain from the punctures. Really weird. And why was everything spinning?

Rahkesh realized with what remained of his consciousness that he'd gone completely limp and collapsed. But he couldn't do anything about it. Everything seemed to be spinning, he could hear his heart pounding, and he couldn't see anything. Then the pain that remained from the dragon's blood began to vanish, leaving Rahkesh reeling as though on an extreme high. Why did he feel so good when his blood was oozing out through the punctures in his neck? Rahkesh hated not being in control of his mind, it was part of his natural resistance to the imperius curse. And even the vampire bite, though he couldn't, and didn't want to, fight it, did take hold of his mind. So why didn't he care? The calm was spreading, leaving him feeling relaxed and happy as he often felt after a long soak in the hot springs. He was definitely going to have to chat with those authors. This actually felt really nice.

White-hot pain suddenly went through his neck and Rahkesh jerked out of his stupor. Sharahak was reeling, rolling away from him. The vampire's eyes were rolling uncontrollably; they were also glowing. He paused and swayed on his knees, before collapsing and going still.

His neck hurt now. The pain was horrible. The unhealed bite marks still bleeding heavily. Nausea swept through him, followed by a horrible pain. His head was pounding, his vision blurred, if he'd had anything left in his stomach after the dragon's blood he would have brought it up. Instead his exhausted body couldn't even vomit, but shook weakly. He couldn't breathe. Rahkesh's vision began to go gray.

Sharahak screamed. Lying on the ground as he was it was partially muffled by the dirt, but the scream nonetheless was so loud that Rahkesh moaned in pain from his hurting ears. The vampire kept on screaming, shaking, clawing at the dirt floor of the cave. Rahkesh wanted to see if he was okay, but he wasn't able to move at all.

Sunlight flooded the cave as Silas moved the boulder and leaped inside. Landing on all fours and going over to Sharahak. Daray and Nic followed seconds later. Rahkesh tried to stay upright, but he couldn't find the strength to speak. A long raspy moan was all he could manage, and his limbs were beginning to shake again. He collapsed sideways; Nic grabbed him in time to keep his head from hitting the wall. Daray took one look at the blood on Rahkesh's partially healed neck and realized what had happened.

"He didn't heal the bites." The vampire said. Sharahak began to seize up, abruptly he started shaking, then the full seizure hit and he began to scream that horrible scream and writhe in agony.

"No magic!" Daray shouted to Silas. Silas put the wand away and pounced on the writhing screaming vampire and pinned him to the floor. Sharahak lurched and snarled, his fingers digging into the dirt. He threw Silas off and began to thrash against the stone wall of the cave. His grasping hands scraped the flesh right off his fingers and then Rahkesh heard the horrible sound of bone scraping against rock as the vampire clawed at the walls. Silas grabbed the bloodied ripped hands and forced Sharahak away from the rock. Sharahak began to spasm and jerk about like a fish out of water; Silas desperate attempts to keep the nearly dead vampire still were useless.

"He's too strong for me!" Silas warned. He conjured ropes, melded them with the cave floor, and tied Sharahak still. "It won't hold for long."

"Long enough." Daray said, "hold him still," he added to Nic. Nic moved behind Rahkesh and grabbed his arms, Daray grabbed him by the back of his head, stretched his neck out, and bit down into the partially healed fang marks.

Rahkesh heard someone else start screaming, then he blacked out.

XXX

As Rahkesh went limp Daray withdrew his fangs and spat blood everywhere. After seeing what Sharahak was going through he wasn't about to drink any of it. He bit one of his fingers and rubbed the blood into the wound. The bite wasn't bleeding anymore and the deep cuts soon filled with the vampire's blood. Once filled with it the fang wounds vanished as if they had never been. The two moved Rahkesh away from the pools of blood and vomit to the far side of the cave. A faint glow slowly began to appear about Rahkesh, and then he began to jerk and shiver as if fighting something. It would have been another full-blown seizure, but his battered and exhausted body had simply shut down too far.

Sharahak was still screaming and doing his best to break the restraints. Silas was trying to hold him still but the older vampire was much too strong for him.

"Light a fire, get him warm and try to keep him from moving." Daray told Nic, Nic nodded and went to the back of the cave, where he removed a rock from the back wall and pulled out firewood. He carried it back to Rahkesh, who was starting to roll about violently, and held the half-dead wizard still while he lit a blaze.

Sure that his friend would be taken care of Daray turned to Sharahak just in time for the vampire's restraints to snap. The two cousins threw themselves at the other vampire and together managed to pin him to the floor.

"What the hell is happening to him?" Silas gasped out when a flying fist hit him in the face.

"Rahkesh's blood." Daray gasped back, forcing Sharahak's legs still and trying to set up another set of restraints. "Hell we always knew he was powerful." Sharahak suddenly stiffened and then collapsed. "About time." Silas bent over the vampire and began to check his injuries.

"He reopened everything that had partially healed. But it is healing again, and very fast." Silas said.

"And Rahkesh?" Nic asked. Rahkesh had stopped thrashing once the warmth from the fire hit him, and appeared to be out cold. He had some damage from his seizures but none of it was life threatening.

"No idea." Silas replied. "Normally a person with an unhealed bite is fine. His partially healed. That was from his latest set of bloodmagic. A healing piece." Nic nodded, he'd been told about their bloodmagic, having nearly walked into one of Silas rituals, which would have killed him and Silas.

"But with a partially healed bite, healed by magic, when the vampire stopped because he was forced to stop feeding, not because he'd finished. People often die from that." Daray said. "I reopened the bite and then closed it properly." Thunder rumbled across the mountains, "I think the magic released during that battle affected the weather." Seconds later it began to pour.

"Someone ought to go tell the guards we're all alive." Nicodemus said. Silas conjured up a shield to keep the rain away, went invisible, and left to go inform that guards that they were all okay. Nic reached down and picked up the discarded phial.

"What is that?" Daray asked. There were a few drops of something red in the bottom and the inside of the phial was coated with a red substance that glowed. Nic shrugged.

"It looks like blood." He moved to hand the phial to Daray, but the vampire leaped back as though stung when his fingers touched the phial.

"Dear God! That's dragon blood!" The vampire yelped, moving to the opposite side of the cave, which was only about three feet away. Nic stared at the shaken vampire in surprise, then at the phial.

"What's wrong with dragon's blood?"

"In its raw form it is lethal to vampires." Daray replied, having calmed down a bit. "It is also a very powerful substance used in certain bits of alchemy to enhance power or healing ability."

"That must be what Rahkesh did." Nic said, pointing to Sharahak, who was entirely healed. It had taken only a few minutes, but all sign of his terrible wounds was gone.

"It takes months to brew that stuff. No he did something else." Daray moved closer again, circling, much to Nic's amusement, as far away from the phial as he could stay. He dipped a finger into a pool of Rahkesh's blood and sniffed at it. Then he sniffed at the phial. The vampire went so pale his skin almost became see-through.

"He drank it. The fool _drank_ it!"

"That's bad?"

"No one's ever survived it." Daray replied, having gotten over his initial horror he turned to Rahkesh's still form. "I can sense that he's alive. That shouldn't be possible." Then he noticed that Nic did not seem at all surprised. In fact the young Chachapoyaro warrior was beginning to chuckle. "What?" Nicodemus shrugged and put the phial aside to sit down.

"Nycahalia and Kalahimran. They've been teaching the students to sense magic. Rahkesh is much more powerful than you realize." He said.

"That still doesn't explain why he's alive."

"Yes it does. He was able to absorb the dragon's blood and transfer the power of it to Sharahak in his blood. His body was magically powerful enough to reject the powers of the dragons blood and force them into Sharahak." Nicodemus explained.

"And, added to human blood, the deadly effect was neutralized. Yes I understand." Daray said softly. "I bet that's never been done before."

"Probably not. Not too many people crazy enough." Nic said with a another chuckle.

XXX

Rahkesh woke abruptly with a gasp. He tried to sit up, but after several attempts he stopped trying, his body wasn't responding. It was dark and he couldn't see much of anything. His whole body ached and he had a throbbing headache, but he also felt surprisingly awake and not nearly as magically drained as he should have been.

"Awake?" A soft voice asked. Rahkesh's ears were ringing and he had to concentrate hard to process what was said. And to figure out what they were asking. He tried to speak but only managed a raspy cough. Someone gently lifted his head a bit and held a cup of water to his lips. Rahkesh drank, and promptly started feeling ill.

"Try not to throw that up again. You need to replace that blood." That time the voice had been Nicodemus. Rahkesh concentrated hard and managed to turn his head and look around.

The cave entranced faced away from the now setting sun and so it was quite dark. A fire in the center of the tiny cavern cast a warm glow everywhere. Sharahak was lying, apparently unconscious, off to his left. Daray was, predictably, sprawled out over a heap of uncomfortable looking rocks on the other side of the fire. And taking up far more space than ought to be physically possible. Nicodemus was sitting behind Rahkesh, holding his head up. Rahkesh, finally managing to move, took the glass of water in a shaking hand, and had to use both hands to manage to hold it still enough to drink from.

His body was drenched in blood and vomit. It stank horribly. Rahkesh wondered if the leather sleeveless top he was wearing was salvageable. Even cleaning charms could only do so much. He reached up to touch his matted hair, and took the chance to brush a finger over the fake skin that hid his scar, it was still there. But the ends of his long hair were caked with vomit and blood. He stomach had calmed and he slowly drank the rest of the water, knowing it was enhanced with some of the potions Nic carried in the dozen or so pouches that hung from his belt. Immediately he began to feel better.

His skin was glowing. Rahkesh raised a shaking arm and saw that it wasn't his skin; it was the bloodmagic runes carved on his body. Usually invisible they were now glowing a deep gold color. He couldn't remember if that was good or bad.

"Sharahak?" he finally managed to croak out. His throat hurt horribly from screaming.

"Alive and healed. I don't know how you knew to do what you did, but it worked." Daray said. Rahkesh nodded slowly. The movement making him feel a bit dizzy.

"And the Inca?" He asked.

"Fled for now. They'll be back soon, but your screams scared them. Coming from under the ground, and you certainly didn't sound even remotely human." Nic told him, "I've never heard anything like it. Everything in the forest fled."

"Enireth?" Rahkesh asked, remembering the dragons roars of fury as the purple spells hit him.

"Who?" Nic asked

"Enireth. The dragon." Rahkesh clarified, and watched as their eyes went very wide.

"You got the blood from _that_?" Daray said.

"Yes."

"_How?_"

"He gave it too me when he realized Sharahak was dying. He said his master used it for healing." Rahkesh said.

"Yeah, in potions. Not raw." Daray said.

"What happened to him?" Rahkesh asked again.

"You know its name?" Daray asked.

"He told me. What happened to him?"

"How did he tell you that? Don't tell me you speak dragon too." The vampire said.

"Mind to mind. Now what happened?"

"Telepathy with a dragon? Dragon's aren't telepathic-"

"DARAY!" Rahkesh roared, the vampire flinched back in shock. Nic grabbed Rahkesh's shoulder to keep him from trying to get up. Rahkesh winced and relaxed again. "What. Happened." Rahkesh snarled, beginning to get annoyed. Daray blinked, and then realized that he'd better answer the question.

"The Inca. They managed to knock the poor creature unconscious and took it with them when they ran off. He's big enough that I suppose we could find him if we needed too." The vampire said. Rahkesh shook his head. Enireth had to be freed. He had no idea how he would manage it, but he was going to set that dragon free of the Inca.

"Telepathy?" Nicodemus asked after a few minutes of silence.

"I've been practicing sensing when the vampires are using telepathy, following their mental powers. I just opened my mind and let anything that came by get through." Rahkesh said. He didn't really want to discuss how he'd done it. He wasn't so sure how it had happened himself.

"You realize you've done two things that are supposed to be impossible in one day?" Daray asked, now appearing very amused. "I can't wait to tell some of our teachers at Akren about this." Rahkesh whimpered.

"Please don't."

"You know it is unavoidable. Oh will that be an interesting conversation." The vampire thought about that for a few moments.

"Yeah I bet." Rahkesh muttered.

"You realize that Namach is going to go completely apeshit on all of us if this affects your bloodmagic any." Daray finally said.

Rahkesh groaned, he hadn't even thought of that yet. If this messed up his bloodmagic, or somehow stopped him from being able to do more of it. He'd never get to learn soul magic or necromancy. Of course Namach would throw such a fit that it wouldn't matter because he'd be dead anyway.

"Aw crap." He muttered, Daray began to snigger. "Not funny. I am so dead." The vampire was now laughing. "There is nothing to be amused about."

"Just imagining the expression on Namach's face when he founds out that one of the most promising students he's ever had went and drank _dragon_ blood." Daray said, he was still laughing. If Rahkesh hadn't felt like death-warmed over he would have thrown something at him. He was sooo dead. He tried to stretch and felt pain all down one arm and one leg.

"You've got some injuries. We haven't tried healing spell yet because of the dragon blood." Nic told him. Rahkesh glanced at his leg and saw that he'd managed to scrape off a good portion of the skin on his lower leg against the wall of the cave. Nic finished mixing something in a bowl and Daray conjured a few cloths. The vampire looked at the amount of blood on Rahkesh and cast a charm on his nose to stop his sense of smell. Being able to see blood but not smell it would help to keep him sane while they worked. Rahkesh knew from his studies that it was the scent of blood more than the sight of it that set vampires off. Realizing that they were going to try to get the dirt and bits of stone out Rahkesh lay still and tried hard not to move.

Unfortunately his shields had come to late to keep the skin from blistering during the heat produced by the fire battle. Between the burns and the scrapes he nearly screamed when Nic began to rub the potion into his injuries. Daray held his leg still while Nic worked, Rahkesh's fingernails dug into his palms so deep they nearly drew blood. Finishing with the leg the two moved to his shoulder.

"You've got pieces of rock imbedded in your shoulder." Nic told him. Rahkesh couldn't feel that very much, actually he was going a bit numb. And the extreme exhaustion from earlier was starting to return.

"Just remove them." He said. Daray held the shoulder still while Nic began to work at the rocks. When the first piece finally came free Rahkesh nearly bit through his lip, tasting the tang of blood. He felt _that. _Nic tossed the rock aside and Rahkesh was shocked at the size, how had he managed to get that into his shoulder? He didn't remember that.

"I don't know what kind of seizure you had before we got here, but it must have been pretty amazing." Nic commented and he used his knife to dig out another pebble. Rahkesh closed his eyes and tried not to scream.

Once all the bits of stone and the dirt were removed Daray backed off to the far side of the cave, as far away from all the blood as he could stay. Nic washed the wound clean a second time and bandaged it. Rahkesh thought about the anti-pain potions in the trunk in his earring, but he didn't know if they'd mix well with dragon blood. Feeling the exhaustion growing more pronounced Rahkesh closed his eyes and relaxed. He'd worry about whatever changes the dragon blood may have caused later.

"He's asleep." Nic said a few moments later. "Perhaps we should wait to go back to the city until tomorrow. There's a good chance that the Inca will start a night attack." Daray nodded in agreement.

"I'm going hunting. I'll take the first watch, you can sleep." He told Nic. Nicodemus nodded and Daray conjured up some blankets and the two wrapped Sharahak and Rahkesh up in them. Nic lay down by the fire and the vampire went out to see if any of the animals had returned from where Rahkesh's unearthly screams had sent them fleeing to.

XXX

Rahkesh woke before dawn. Not sure what had caused him to wake so abruptly he stayed still, listening. The fire was still going, the orange glow flickering around the tiny cave creating twisting ethereal shadows across the walls. He was wrapped in several blankets and he could tell without checking that someone had spelled the blood and vomit off him. The rain had stopped, but with the boulder sealing the entrance he couldn't see the night sky to tell what time it was. Rahkesh slowly began a check to see if he had suffered any permanent damage. Moving first his toes then feet then ankles. Everything seemed fine and in fairly good condition, considering what he'd put himself through. The headache was gone and his throat didn't hurt so much. He raised a hand to his neck and felt that the wounds on his throat were really fully closed. He sat up and turned to see who else was awake.

Sharahak was sleep, his breathing had changed from the coma-like stillness he'd had earlier to an actual sleep instead. The wounds were gone.

Daray was repairing on of his arm guards. Nic was sitting on his right adding a potion to a bowl.

"How long till dawn?" Rahkesh asked softly.

"Three hours." Nic replied, "how do you feel?"

"Better than I did." Rahkesh said, taking the cup Nic handed him. "What's in this?"

"Basic healing herbs. Juices from crushed Uxen leaves. And a few minor healing charms Daray put on it." Nic told him. Rahkesh drank it quickly, feeling the healing charms spread throughout his body.

Sharahak moaned, then began to wake. The vampire was remarkably stable as he sat up and looked around.

"Okay. Someone tell me what happened." He said.

"What do you remember?" Rahkesh asked. Sharahak thought about that.

"Being attacked by a dragon. It's claws got me didn't they?" Rahkesh nodded.

"Yes. You nearly died." He said. Sharahak paused and thought. Then he shook his head.

"No I _should_ have died. What happened?" The other two looked at Rahkesh, who shrugged and filled the vampire in. Sharahak listened in silence until he was finished. The older vampire looked thoughtful, as if he was trying to remember something.

"Dragons blood is very powerful. Much more powerful than most people realize. It's effects are not well known, but I recall an island people I met once when my ship sank at sea. They used dragon blood in healing rituals. I remember its powers well." The vampire said. "Thank you Rahkesh." Rahkesh grinned.

"You're welcome. How do you feel?"

"Really, really good actually. Like I was never injured." Sharahak said, sounding rather amazed at himself. Rahkesh laughed.

"Just how I feel. Powerful stuff indeed!" He said, and then winced as his movement sent sparks of pain through his shoulder. "What is that?"

"You opened it again." Nic said, Rahkesh began to feel blood running down his back from his shoulder. Nic picked up a wet cloth from a bowl of water and began wiping the blood off. "You ripped the skin off your shoulder at some point."

"Healing spells?" Rahkesh asked Daray, the vampire shrugged.

"We weren't sure if it would be harmful, with the dragon's blood. We can try now that you're awake." Rahkesh leaned forwards and waited while Nic cleaned out the wound again and Daray began a healing spell. For a moment nothing happened, and Rahkesh could feel the spell flowing off him. Then he realized that it might be _him _holding it back and he relaxed, urging the magic to work. There was a flash of what felt like static across the wound, and the pain was gone.

"Wow. That was different." Nic said, "it's completely healed."

"I think I was stopping it accidentally." Rahkesh said, wondering if he could do that again to stop any spell. Unlikely but worth a try. When he was back in his own time with capable healers and people who knew more about dragon blood than he did.

"You're really feeling okay?" He asked Sharahak again. The vampire nodded. "Well enough to fight?"

"Why do you ask?" Sharahak asked, "I'm feeling fine, like I have too much energy actually."

"The Inca are going to attack soon." Rahkesh explained.

"Probably." Daray agreed. "Just before dawn is such an overused time to attack that you can almost expect it."

"And we're already out here. They think everyone is at the city. We're hidden out here, possibly behind their lines already." Rahkesh pointed out.

"If they've returned. You scared them pretty badly. Heck you scared _us _with those screams." Nic said. "We should wait until we're sure they've returned." They sat in silence for another hour. Watching the fire burn. Rahkesh began trying cleaning charms on the stains on his shirt. Towards dawn they began to here distant drums.

"Those aren't the drums we use." Nic said unnecessarily. These drums were pounding in a fierce rhythm that had nothing to do with sending messages. Slowly a chant began to start up, the Inca were close by.

"They're not moving, they're just staying in one spot." Daray said as they listened. The sounds didn't move, whatever the Inca were doing it wasn't anything to do with an attack. Rahkesh made sure he had everything with him, his backpack was lost but fortunately nothing in it was irreplaceable.

"I'd like to go see." Rahkesh said. When they both started to protest he stopped them, "I'm not sick or injured. And if the dragon's blood has affected my magic I can't feel it. I'm just fine. Actually I feel better than fine."

"Can you still go invisible?" Daray asked. Rahkesh did so. "Sharahak?"

"Like I said, better than fine." Sharahak responded. "Like I was never injured, better than I've felt in years." Daray looked at Nic. Nic nodded and threw dirt on the fire and then stomped it until it went out. Daray removed the boulder and the four went quickly to another hiding spot built into the lower branches of a very leafy tree.

XXX

"There're the guards, by the trees." Nicodemus said softly, pointing. Daray and Rahkesh, both invisible crept forwards, trying not to move the dangling vines and leafy plants in any way that would give away their presence. Rahkesh doubted that the Inca had ever encountered anything invisible before, but it would be better if they noticed nothing unusual.

"Six total. Start with the two on the left?" Rahkesh asked.

"Yes." Daray replied. It was very weird not being able to see the vampire, Rahkesh had to rely on his growing mind magics to tell him where Daray was. Knowing this the vampire was sending out a wave of telepathy that told Rahkesh his exact location. It was almost as if he could see the vampire with his mind. He wasn't signed up for telepathy classes, he'd planned on starting next year, but if his progress continued at this rate it seemed like he might end up being so far ahead that he wouldn't need the classes at all. Except for the Occlumency and the Legilimency class.

The guards were standing in twos in a wide semi circle around the Inca camp. They were alert, looking straight ahead, but they were not moving, so if two went missing the others wouldn't notice. A critical error, had they been walking around then it would have been much more difficult. Not wanting to leave live enemies behind them they killed the first two. Knives sunk between two vertebrae severing their spines, paralyzing them, and causing a silent death that went unnoticed by the other guards.

The next four guards were killed in the same fashion, then Daray sent out a wave of telepathy to Sharahak. The older vampire and Nic joined them to help moved the bodies so that they were leaning against trees and looking vaguely alive.

"Can you understand their language?" Rahkesh asked Nic and Sharahak. Sharahak nodded but Nic shook his head.

"They don't usually teach anyone that, except for the Xuelhuala warriors, we've never had much contact with the Inca so we don't need to know it." Nic explained.

"It isn't that different, you can probably figure out what most of the words mean." Sharahak said, "I think they probably originate din the same area, with the same original language. Long ago of course."

The four crept forward, moving very slowly. It was still not entirely light and beneath the forest canopy it was still very dark. There were fires ahead of them and drums and chanting. Not all of the Inca army was present, indeed there seemed to be no more than thirty people in the rings of fires. Far behind the first circle of fires, deep in the forest, they caught sight of other fire. The group with the drums must be the vanguard, with the rest of their army spread out across the forest behind them. Nic picked out a hidden trail and led them around the fires to a better viewpoint.

There was a circle of fire, plumes of smoke rose high into the air. The glow from the fire lit up the dark undergrowth of the forest, making everything orange and red. There were people lying naked on the ground in a circle outside the flames. They lay head to toe in a vast circle. Looking at them Rahkesh could see that they were tied together that way, and that they each had massive gashes on their bodies. Blood was running from them into the circular pit that contained the fire.

Inside the circle of flames was a massive block of solid gold. It was carved with strange creatures. Beasts that looked vaguely human, with massive bat-like wings. Carved into the sides of the gold block their faces snarled and their eyes, set with rubies, flickered in the flames.

"An altar." Daray said, "some sort of ritual sacrifice?" Rahkesh shrugged. Beside him Nic turned and went back a few paces to the base of a massive tree. The other three turned to watch as Nicodemus pulled sharply on one vine, and then yanked simultaneously on two others. Immediately a ladder made from vines fell down. Nic climbed up and beckoned them to follow.

Up about twenty feet was a wide flat branch big enough and sturdy enough for all of them to sit on. They crawled out to the end of the branch to look at what was going on below.

There were twelve people pounding on the drums while other people, who seemed to be dressed in god, colored cloth, and red and black tattoos, knelt chanting just beyond the people lying tied together around the fire. From up here they could see that the altar, since that was what it seemed to be, was hollow and was filled with a dark liquid. The two vampires sniffed the air.

"Blood. It is filled with blood." Daray said. "What is this?" None of them got a chance to answer. At that moment the people dressed in gold and colored cloth with red and black tattoos came out of the edges of the forest and went to stand beside the people lying on the ground, one to each of them. They each drew a knife and simultaneously plunged them into the chests of the people on the ground. The four in the tree flinched at the screams as the tattooed people cut out the hearts of those on the ground.

Lifting the hearts above their heads the tattooed people chanted some verse in their language several times. Then they stood and went into the center of the circle where they dumped the hearts into the blood filled altar.

The blood began to glow a brilliant red. Then it began to boil. Screams and roars issued from the boiling glowing blood. The tattooed people knelt around the altar, and Rahkesh could have sworn they were shaking in fear.

"I can smell them. They're terrified." Daray said softly. As the blood began to glow brighter and the boils became so violent that it splashed out of the alter the drums came to a halt. Beside them Sharahak suddenly gasped.

"I know what this is." He said. "They're summoning demons."

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Oooh. Demons. Hehehehe. I said I'd be original right? Sorry if this was a little short, I don't have much time.

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I have to go away for a few weeks. Details are on my page. I'll post again as soon as possible.

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Please review.

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	17. Chapter 17

Hello! I'm back! Glad to see me? Sorry if this chapter is a bit shorter than my current average. **Read the notes at the bottom of the chapter!**

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Chapter 17

Rahkesh had only once heard anything about demons, from a book in the Hogwarts library. He had been looking for information on a goblin rebellion and found a book on demons in the same section. Demons being much more interesting than goblin rebellions he'd read it and forgotten about the project. Demons dwelt in the underworld, a place that no one had ever visited intentionally. They were known to abduct witches, wizards, vampires, and many other magical humans and use them as slaves. There had been occasional escapes from the Underworld during which the demons attempted to take over the world. None had succeeded, but the last one had led to the end of Atlantis and the one before that had ended the civilization of magical intelligent two-legged human-like reptiles that had existed before humans. And the attempt before that had ended another civilization that had ruled during the age of the dinosaurs. _That _people had forced the demons back into the underworld at the cost of their own species. Causing a mass extinction of most life forms in the process.

Usually it was only possible for a few demons to escape at any given time – the process of getting out of the underworld invariably destroyed the portal used before too many could pass through. Currently the demon realm was sealed shut, having been sealed with the end of Atlantis with seven seals which prevented demons from mounting another campaign. Rahkesh did not know when or how it had happened, but in his time six of the seals were known to be broken. But here in this time there were probably several left, so whatever demons the Inca might be calling forth could not come in large numbers.

Fountains of blood shot from the altar, the blood must have been super-heated because when it hit the kneeling Inca they cried out in pain. The blood had started to hiss and steam, creating a layer of mist that wrapped itself around the Inca and the altar. Light pulsed through the mist, emanating from the bloodied golden altar. Rahkesh could feel the magic pulsing through the clearing, emanating from the altar. The magic had a hot painful feel to it, with an unnatural tang that reminded him of the taste of blood. Finally there was a massive fountain of blood and something began to rise out of the blood-filled altar.

Beside him Sharahak began to shake. Rahkesh looked at him and saw that the vampire's eyes were rolling wildly, turned up so far that only the whites showed. He had death grip on the tree branch and was shaking so hard that the whole branch began to move. Before Rahkesh's eyes Sharahak's nose began to bleed and his eyes slowly became bloodshot. Rahkesh pulled out his wand and cast a quick notice me not charm on the shaking tree so that the Inca would not notice. Then he looked around Sharahak to Daray. The other vampire was not as bad as Sharahak yet, but fast on his way to getting there. He was trembling violently and gasping for breath. Rahkesh had never seen him really breathe before, having no need to breathe most vampires didn't. His eyes were also turning red but he didn't seem to be effected as badly as Sharahak. Possibly because he was younger and not as powerful Rahkesh thought. He was going to ask Nic if he thought they could get the two vampire's out of the tree before they fell, but at that moment whatever was coming out of the altar roared.

The demon's roar sounded very much like the roar of a lion mixed with the scream of a dragon, but much louder. Rahkesh clamped his hands over his ears but the horrible noise was too loud. His eyes watering from the pain in his ears Rahkesh stared in horrified fascination at the creature that emerged from the altar.

First came the wings. Massive black wings. Most of the wings were leathery skin like the wings of a bat but along the bones there was thick reptilian scale. The claws on the tips of the wings were bone white and looked very sharp. Its wings were enormous, more than large enough to support the weight of a human.

The head had the features of a human, but was elongated to a shape reminiscent of a wolf's muzzle. A set of long horns curled like those of a ram rolled back from the sides of its forehead. It had a thick neck covered in thin spikes that looked a bit like porcupine quills. Starting around the cheekbones and facing backwards down the neck. The eyes were larger than a human's and bright orange. What registered the most with Rahkesh though was that its eyelids were sideways. When it blinked the eyelids came in from the left and right instead of top and bottom. It's skin was a very dark russet color and when it opened its mouth to roar again Rahkesh saw a forked tongue and a vicious set of fangs.

The body was vaguely human. Human in that it had two legs two arms and a head. It also had a tail, a long thick whip-like black tail that began over the buttocks at the base of the spine and tapered for a good five feet before reaching a spear-head shaped point. Its knees bent in the opposite direction from a human's while the ankles were the same. Its hips were on the sides of its body in such a way that it appeared a bit like a kangaroo. Its feet were massive, much larger than anything human. In place of toes it had enormous white claws. Four facing forward and two facing back so that it could grip things easily. The hands had very long fingers, six of them, with an extra joint in them. They also had claws that grew from the back of the hand just behind the knuckles. Standing upright the demon was taller than Rahkesh (who was just over six feet) but not by much.

The demon extended its wings and flapped hard, rising high into the air. The drummers had backed up until they were almost in the trees and the kneeling Incas, burned by the boiling blood, were staring up at it in terror. It turned a full circle as if to view its new surroundings. The spiked, horned head tilted upwards and it let loose a burst of fire from its mouth. Then it screamed and dove at the kneeling Incas.

What happened next was a bloodbath unlike anything Rahkesh had ever thought to witness. The demon's tail curled up over its head like a scorpion would and stabbed right through the head of one of the kneeling men. The sickening crunch made Rahkehs wince. Its jaws snapped shut around another man's neck and Rahkesh heard his bones snap and crack like dried leaves. A second demon now rose out of the altar now, a dark creamy gray demon, much lighter colored than the first. It snapped up three Incas as they tried to flee and then set its hind claws into another man and ripped his intestines out. The first demon cut a man's throat with the claws on its wings and ripped another in half with its clawed hands. Blood mixed with intestinal juices ran everywhere. Then the demons began to feed.

The darker one ripped open a still living Inca's chest and bit out his heart. His screams were so loud that Rahkesh wondered if the Chachapoyaro atop the wall could hear him. Then he died, going limp in the demons arms. It purred then, a contented cat-like noise that seemed totally out of place with the blood dripping from it and bits of bone sticking out from the bloodied bodies. It chewed his heart slowly like it was a delicacy. Then it went for the brain next, ripping the dead man's head open and lapping at the fluids with its tongue like a cat would. Finished with that it tossed the rest of the body aside carelessly. There was a wet thump as the mauled corpse hit the base of their tree, and Rahkesh forced himself not to look down. The dark demon picked out another body and with a surgeon's precision slit open his gut.

The two demons picked through their victims, taking only certain parts from each to eat. Hearts, brains, eyes, livers, stomachs, and bone marrow. Their purrs and soft growls indicating their delight with the meal. The Inca who had been using the drums had hurried away to the other fires, Rahkesh could hear them retching in the distance. Only a handful stayed, these ones covered head to toe in black tattoos. They watched silently, waiting for the demons to finish. Rahkesh noted that they were very pale as they stared at the feasting going on in the clearing, but they did not look away. Rahkesh had seen a lot during his life, but the feeding demons were starting to make him feel queasy. He backed up on the branch towards the tree trunk. Nic moved beside him a second later, looking as pale and nauseas as Rahkesh felt.

"Uh. That's disgusting." Rahkesh muttered. He was surprised when Nic just shrugged.

"Demons. You know the Inca will send them after us?" Rahkesh blinked, mentally berating himself for the lapse. He hadn't thought about that yet.

"I don't know how to fight demons."

"Neither do I. And I doubt the Xuelhuala warriors here right now know how to either." Nic replied. They both jumped when Sharahak began to make weird raspy gasping noises. The vampire swayed, then fell.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Rahkesh whispered quickly, catching Sharahak before the vampire could fall from the tree.

The demon's heads whipped around to stare at the tree they were hiding in. The Inca caught the movement and turned to look as well.

"Oh no." Nic said.

"Sh!" Rahkesh hissed. The two stayed still, barely breathing. Rahkesh realized that the demons could probably sense magic. Hiding was probably useless now. The darker larger demon turned to the lighter one. It hissed, and then made a strange noise somewhere between a hum and a squawk. The Inca were muttering amongst themselves, eyeing the tree warily.

The lighter demon dropped the last of the bodies and unfurled its wings and flapped them twice, but did not take flight. The darker one turned one orange eye towards the Incas.

And spoke.

"There are humanssss there." It hissed in a voice unlike anything Rahkesh had ever heard. It spoke slowly, softly, its voice breathy and soft sounding like a cross between a snake's hiss and a cat's purr.

The Inca looked at each other with wide eyes and shifted uneasily. Then one of the older men stepped forward and bowed to the demons. The others behind him copied his example and bowed.

"We summoned you. You are free to do what you will in this world once the task we summoned you to help us with is fulfilled." The elderly man said slowly. And Rahkesh had to admire his bravery, to speak so calmly and to say such commanding words to a demon that had just butchered many of his kin. The demon's eyebrows, no more than a ridge of thick scales, lowered. Now it looked a bit more human, obviously glaring. The sideways eyelids snapped shut then open.

"We are aware of the terms mortal creature." It said. Its soft voice not masking the cruel disdainful tone. The old man sensed he might have offended it, because he nodded and bowed again.

"I believe they are part of that purpose. We are at war." He said. The lighter demon did not take its eyes off the tree in which the two semi-conscious vampires and two mortals sat. The darker one was focused on the Inca, but its body faced them as well, wings half-uncurled, ready to attack.

"We've got to get out of here." Nic muttered to Rahkesh. Rahkesh agreed with a nod. But how? The glanced down at the ground, it wasn't too far to jump. He could levitate the vampires. Nic had his own magic, though Rahkesh knew little of his abilities he assumed that Nic could probably hold his own.

"Once back at the wall Kalahimran and his sorcerers can drive them off. How far is it?" Rahkesh asked. Nic thought for a moment.

"Not far, there're a few other hidden trails that will get us there faster."

"I'll levitate the vampires then." Rahkesh said, casting a second spell on Daray. The vampire began to glow, then the magic bounced off, flying back towards Rahkesh at a much greater speed then he'd sent it with. Rahkesh ducked.

SMASH! The spell blasted a massive crater into the tree trunk. The demons reared up and took flight, roaring. Seeing the two demons rising above them Rahkesh leaped over Nic to Daray's side.

"I can't get you out of here if you keep throwing the magics off Daray. Relax, it's okay. We'll get you out of here." Rahkesh said softly, reaching with all of the telepathy he had learned to calm the vampire.

Daray's telepathy attacked the second Rahkesh's mind touched his. Rahkesh's vision went gray and he stopped breathing as the whole world spun and started to sink. He started getting cold and cried out when horrible pain flashed across his mind. His head started to pound and the physical world vanished. The pain was horrible, blindly screaming pain flaring repeatedly through his mind. He couldn't feel, smell, hear, or see. Everything dropped away and he felt himself loosing consciousness. Through a haze of confusion and pain Rahkesh realized that the vampire was not actually in control of his mental abilities. In fact it seemed that Daray was unconscious and his subconscious mind was fighting anything, not sure of what was a threat and what wasn't.

The demons were flying higher, searching for their exact position in the tree. Beside him Nic was pulling out a set of gold, rune inscribed discs from one of the pouches that hung from his belt. Rahkesh concentrated on the most soothing calm emotion he could feel and tried to project it to Daray. Daray's eyes were rolling like Sharahak's had done and he was starting to glow. Glowing wasn't a good sign.

With his mind under attack, trying to levitate Sharahak and convince Daray to relax Rahkesh was in no position to defend himself, much less anyone else. He turned to tell Nic to get ready for the next attack, but Nic had already sensed the problem and was readying his own magics.

Nic placed one of the gold discs on the palm of his right hand. Attached to the disc were several small gold chain straps which wrapped around and between his fingers and attached to a second disc on the back of his hand. He secured the straps and attached a similar device to the other hand. Then he lifted both hand to his lips and spat on the four discs. The gold discs began to glow, and then they shimmered and turned to a gold water-like liquid that wrapped itself all about Nic's hands like shimmering gloves.

Up above the demons seemed to be smelling the air with both their tongues and noses, and finally agreed upon a location. The lighter one dove for a first attack, the dark one following just behind its tail. The first one swooped down low, so low it legs brushed through the tops of the tree branches. It wheeled away without attacking and roared to the second. The second demon twisted and dove for the point where the first demon's back claws had ripped the upper branches, The darker demon reached out, slashing branches out of the way with it claws, then turned aside. It rose up and turned with the first one to dive again.

Rahkesh saw that the demons were working as a team, testing their unknown opponent and the density of the tree branches, without actually engaging in a fight. They were planning, deciding how best to attack. Daray's mind lashed out again. Rahkesh gave up and simply stunned him. He didn't have time to fight with the vampire. Branches clattered down onto him from above. The demons were picking out the bits that they couldn't handle and removing them. On the fourth attack flight the two demons made a decision. They both rose, turned in perfect unison, and dove, breathing massive gouts of fire before them.

Nic raised his glowing hands and made a motion too quick for Rahkesh to see. The darker demon screamed and twisted as its flames vanished. Nic turned to the other demon and made a different motion; a massive gust of air sent the lighter demon hurtling into its darker companion. Nic made a third motion, yelling something in a language Rahkesh had never heard, the demons shrieked as their wings turned to stone and they crashed to the ground. Seeing that the demons were occupied Rahkesh grabbed the two incapacitated vampires in a levitation charm and fled. He leaped from the tree and hit the ground running. Nic followed him to earth and raced after him a second later. Rahkesh looked back over his shoulder. Behind them the demons were melting the stone off their wings and the darker one had already taken flight again.

As soon as its companion joined it the demon attacked. Diving at the fleeing humans and vampires while the lighter one hovered overhead, waiting to see which direction they dodged in. Rahkesh closed his mind to the waves of telepathy rolling from both vampires and demons, and shot a wandless bolt of lightning at the lighter demon. It wheeled aside and roared at him. Rahkesh cast another spell, opening massive gashes on the darker demon. Beside him Nic was chanting as he ran. His eyes were closed, he seemed to be finding his way by memory through the hidden trails. Rahkesh sent bone breaking curses at the demons, and had to duck when they threw them off effortlessly. His spells weren't working very well. And he could only cast spells so fast while maintaining the levitation. Nic had better to do something soon.

A wave of fire crashed down beside them, Rahkesh threw himself to the side, knocking Nic out of the way. They both landed beneath the fire and waited until it had passed. The demons turned to attack again. Nic raced off down another hidden trail, Rahkesh followed. This trail led them back under the thick canopy and Rahkesh heard the demons raging angrily above them.

Finally Nic stopped, jerked Rahkesh to halt by grabbing his sleeve and turned. When he opened his eyes they and his gold-encased hands started to glow. Nic raised both arms and made a long sweeping motion.

Nothing happened. Rahkesh turned to Nic to ask what he'd done; Nic shook his head before he could speak. Rahkesh waited silently.

Directly above the branches of the tree shattered and burst into flames. The darker demon hit the ground on all fours. Moments later the lighter one landed, ripping the gaping hold in the treetops even wider.

Instantly vine from the surrounding trees began to glow. The demons froze. Nic smirked and signaled with his glowing hands.

The vines lashed out, wrapping themselves around the demons. The thorned vines ripped at their eyes while the smooth ones closed around their wigs in nets. Nic took off running again. Behind them roars and shrieks from the ensnared demons blasted through the silent forest.

Bright bursts of fire appeared behind them. Rahkesh could feel a wave f heat. The demons were burning the vines off. Second later a triumphant roar sounded, followed by the rustle of leaves and the rushing noise of quick feet. Nic turned and led him down another trail. Behind him Rahkesh could hear the demons racing through the forest.

"They're catching up!" He gasped out, unable to believe it. The demons were tracking them, on foot, through a forest, faster than they could run away. Fire flew past Rahkesh, missing his face by inches. Nic ducked a second burst and dodged down another diverging path. The demons leaped the distance between them and landed just behind them, Rahkesh felt fire at his heels and heard tree branches snap. There was no way they were going to get to the wall.

Out of nowhere a wave of power swamped the two, throwing them both to the ground. Rahkesh felt his levitation spell snap. Then two vampiric presences roared to life on the edge of his senses. Flat on the ground Rahkesh realized he was vulnerable and rolled to the trailside. Nic threw himself behind a fallen tree as a jet off fire flew past him.

Then everything went quiet. Rahkesh rolled behind a tree and stood, peering out he saw an unusual sight.

In the middle of the path the two demons were standing, on all fours, massive wings partially furled, side by side. Facing the demons were the two vampires. All four were growling.

Ni and Rahkesh traded confused looks, neither having the faintest idea what was going on.

"Blood drinkers." The lighter demon growled harshly. Its tail lashed like a cat's and it shook its head, spreading the sharp spines around its face and neck. The darker demon hissed and stepped forward and bit. Sharahak growled back and moved in a half circle closer to the demon, walking on the balls of his feet, tense and smooth, like a cat ready to pounce. Daray conjured a set of long knives and drifted closer to the demons, who growled at him.

Before Nic and Rahkesh's surprised eyes the four beings continued assessing each other's battle readiness, with a good deal of posturing and growling. Rahkesh warily opened his mind and searched, sensing massive telepathic presences clashing, but never really fighting. Testing each other with quick strikes.

Finally the larger demon got tired of it, and leaped. Straight up over Sharahak's head. Grabbed a tree branch and leaped off that right at Rahkesh. With no warning at all Rahkesh couldn't dodge, instead he fell over backwards, drawing his wand and hurling a massive stream of lightning at the attacking demon.

The demon roared and tossed its head, scattering sparks and making the air crackle. Rahkesh rolled to his feet and continued the spell. Trying to keep its face away from the attack the demon executed an incredible cat-like turn in mid air, and struck with its tail.

Rahkesh tried to dodge, but even his blood-magic enhanced seeker reflexes were stressed from the past twenty-four hours and he wasn't faced enough. The spread-head of the demon's tail sank deep into his side. It missed the ribs, sinking through only skin and muscle. Rahkesh felt it go most of the way through him and exit the side of his back. Then the demon leaped forward to attack the vampires, yanking the tail-spear out.

Rahkesh clamped a hand over the entry-wound in his side and staggered against the tree as the demon charged Daray. Reeling in pain Rahkesh watched as the demon and vampire closed in a spectacular display of magic.

The demon avoided closing with Daray for as long as possible, striking first with a blast of fire. Daray fought the demon's fiery breath with a massive wave of vampiric telekinesis, something Rahkesh had never seen much of before. The fire shot backwards right up the demon's nose. It screamed and shook it head vigorously and lunged. Daray's knives came up and he struck away the first few attacks. The demon's claws glancing off the knives. As its claws were pushed away again the demon's head shot forwards, extending its neck to its full length of over a foot, and sank its teeth into Daray's shoulder.

Naturally Daray bit back, stabbing one knife up through the underside of the demon's lower jaw, gashing the delicately scaled skin there. Holding the demon's head on the knife point he bit deep into its throat.

Meanwhile Sharahak had drawn a device similar to what Nic used and activated it. The vampire was throwing the demon about with massive sweeps of magic and gestures, bashing it into trees. The smaller demon quickly got a handle on what Sharahak was doing and avoided the next attack. It threw itself and the ground at Sharahak's feet and at the last moment it twisted its spine at an impossible angle to come upon two legs from below, inside the vampire's guard. Sharahak's gold-gloved hands promptly grew a small set of golden claws. One set missed, but the other sank right into the demon's eye.

But the demon had a few tricks of its own, it blinked. The scale eyelids must have been very hard indeed for the claws glanced off harmlessly. Sharahak parried a blow that would have ripped his ribcage open, then twisted his leg between the demon's and sent it sprawling back onto all fours.

Jaws locked into each other's flesh Daray and the darker demon struggled against each other. Finally the telepathic feeding abilities of both kicked in. Vampire and demon collapsed to the ground, Daray striking the demon's tail away with one leg, despite not being able to see the attack coming. Drinking each other's blood they could both sense any attack the other planned. The ensuing scuffle was more about who was stronger and faster and had more mental endurance than fighting skill. A Brutal clash of telepathy that forced Rahkesh to shut down his sensing abilities as far as he could to avoid it. The demons claws slashed about Daray and the vampire's knives returned the wounds.

Rahkesh struggled to breath, realizing belatedly that the demon must have poison in its tail. He could feel gut wrenching pain, and a frightening coldness, spreading from the wound in his side. He was aware of Nic calling his name, but he couldn't reply, he couldn't speak. Rahkesh forced himself to draw another breath and tried again, still he couldn't form any words. He was lying on the ground, but he didn't remember falling. He wad dimly aware of the struggling forms of Daray and the demon on the edge of his vision, but his head was spinning painfully.

The lighter demon leaped back from Sharahak, knocking Nic nearly ten feet with a mighty blow of its tail. Nic landed hard against a rock and slumped to the ground. It twisted around and lunged again. But this time it attacked with its own form of magic. Its body began to glow and when it spread its wings and roared there as a massive flash of light. The vampire tried to flee but the magic had already hit. The light, and whatever magics traveled within it, smashed into Sharahak. The vampire tried to flee but the magic had already hit. Sharahak began to scream as the demon's spell was absorbed into his body. The injured vampire lunged at the demon. Barely conscious Rahkesh lost control of his mental shields, and so he felt the massive burst of telepathic power Sharahak threw through the demon's defenses and into its mind before they collided. Sharahak's teeth sank into the demon's throat, ripping the great vein, at the same moment that the demon's claws ripped his throat open.

Distantly Rahkesh realized he was dying. It was like the Basilisk venom, that slow awareness that he was going to be dead soon. The coldness. He couldn't feel any pain anymore, and he couldn't see. But it had been years since that Basilisk attack, and Rahkesh knew a lot more about magic than he had then. Now he knew how to feel his magic, and his magic was alive and fighting. Rahkesh had never learned to completely sense his own magics, or anyone else's. He's abilities were completely self taught and therefore mostly only rudimentary. But this close to death things were changing. The natural instinct to live was coming to the fore regardless of training.

He could feel his magic know, wrapped around him, emanating from every cell in his body. It was awareness on a level Rahkesh had never experienced. He was seeing with magic, seeing his own magic. He could also sense the poison, also magical, a foreign deadly magic that he body wanted to expel. Rahkesh reached, and heard a soft hiss echo through his mind. Parseltongue. He drew it to him, and, without really thinking about what he was doing, sent his magics flooding through the poison. And the poison retreated.

Unknown to Rahkesh Nic had woken from his injury and struggled to stand. Now he was staring as the blood running from Rahkesh's reopened wounds turned black, threaded through with gold. The wound glowed and began to burn, vaporizing the poison as if retreated from his body.

Finally Rahkesh felt the last of the poison leave, now his magical instincts took over, urging him to seal the wound against further poisoning. Rahkesh did so unthinkingly. Then with a contented hiss the parseltongue subsided and his magic senses dimmed away.

Rahkesh opened his eyes. He was lying to the side of the trail. Healed. Alive. A second later Nic was beside him, pulling him to his feet and out of the way as a mass of thrashing claws, teeth, tails, and knives flew past. Daray and the darker demon. Looking around Rahkesh saw Sharahak lying beside the lighter demon. Neither of them was moving. And both were glowing with a light, which could not be described as light at all because it was black, how could light be black? Rahkesh wondered, still dazed and shaken. A sudden scream and two waves of telepathic power sent him to his knees again. Desperately Rahkesh tried to close off his mind against the uncontrolled writhing power flowing across his senses. Finally his walls closed in and it dimmed to a manageable level.

Rahkesh stood again and looked down. Daray and the second demon were lying near his feet, both unmoving, and not breathing. Like Sharahak and the other demon, both of them were glowing.

Unsteady and confused Rahkesh just stared at the four unconscious, glowing, creatures, not registering Nic calling his name. Finally Nic yanked on his shoulder and Rahkesh snapped out of his daze.

His friend was looking past him, down the trail from where they had come, his eyes wide. Rahkesh turned and followed his gaze. And his eyes were met by uncountable fierce glares.

Beside him Nic began to back away drawing his own weapons. Rahkesh slowly drew his wand again; he glanced at Nic and received a nod in return. The two stepped in front of their fallen friends, facing a glaring army of tattooed men carrying spears, arrows, and knives.

The Inca had arrived.

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Ooooohhh. Sorry about another cliffhanger, I really was hoping to get through the next battle as well, but I have to go to bed and I thought you would prefer this to nothing. Much fighting to come. Two more complete battles in the next two chapters I think. Then we'll take a small break from the violence and try something else…hehehehe…(evil giggles)

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I've settled into college and have access to a computer, but now I have homework. I'm a science major taking THREE lab courses so I have NO free time. I will be continuing to write but updates will not be as frequent as they were back in July before school started. Sorry.

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Thanks to everyone for their reviews. I always appreciate reviews. I always read all of them even if I don't comment on all the individual reviews.

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Actually I read the reviews multiple times and actually take notes to see if I'm being too obvious about the future of my plot.

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So please review, tell me what you think. I hope this one has less typos and grammar mistakes. Tell me what you think about my demon description, I spent two hours working on that. I hope it was detailed enough without being boring. Remember if I have the long explanations now I can skip those in the future and get right to the action. This chapter is my way of getting a lot of demon background out there; you'll need to know it in the future.

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Dude there are groundhogs living outside my dorm, and porcupines, dozens of them. Way cool.


	18. Chapter 18

Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Please review again. I hope you like the twist at the end.

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Chapter 18

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The forest was dense, so any army had to spread out. But even spread out between the trees the Inca presence was too much for the two of them to overcome, not when they were also trying to keep their friends safe. Rahkesh eyed the hundred of eyes and faces staring at him from amongst the jungle green and realized that they had no way out. If he could get his broom then he could fly out, but to do that he would have to go above the canopy. But getting above the forest canopy was a sure death. The Inca would have archers in the trees or on any high ground they could find. Not to mention they probably had sorcerers. Nic had told them they were powerful enough to see and get into the Chachapoyaro's magical cities, Rahkesh had little doubt they could also cast dangerous spells. The forest offered more cover.

At the same time Rahkesh knew he was in no shape for any sort of battle. The past twenty-four hours had sapped his energy and strength and the recent demon's venom had left him feeling weak as a newborn kitten. His bloodmagic had probably been disrupted by the dragon's blood and the chance of strength potions reacting badly with the venom or blood was too high to risk. A physical fight would surely kill him. Rahkesh could feel that he was unsteady and unbalanced, despite the healing magics his side hurt horribly where skin and been forced to regenerate too quickly. At the moment all he wanted was to sleep for a month.

A quick glance at his companion revealed that Nic was not any better off than he was. Rahkesh had not noticed it before but Nic's collision with the boulder had injured him badly. His back was soaked with the blood that was running down the back of his head. His skin was deathly pale and Nic was swaying unsteadily on his feet. Nic might still have some magical strength left but it seemed all too likely that he had a skull fracture or a concussion. The idea that Nic could be forming blood clots in his brain at that moment was not comforting.

Rahkesh glanced upwards, wondering if they could take cover in the trees. Above him he spotted a long coil of green. A tree snake! Rahkesh concentrated and switched to parseltongue.

_Hello._

_Who speaks?_

_I, Rahkesh. The men with the tattoos are trying to kill my friend and I. Can you help us?_ The snake stared at him, flicking its tongue. Finally it replied.

_How would I do that?_

_Go uphill towards the big stones. I know you cannot climb them. But please try to find a black snake by the name of Sygra. _The tree snake thought for a few moments then nodded.

_The tattooed men like to kill my kind and skin us. They are wearing snake skin. I do not like that. You fight them? I will help you._ It decided, then vanished into the trees in seconds. Leaving Rahkesh staring after it, and hoping that it would find Sygra.

Realizing that Sygra was above the wall he thought hard, searching for all of his memories of his pet and reaching with all the mental strength he had to reach her. He didn't even know if what he was attempting was possible, but Sygra would have to get down the wall if she was to find him.

WHACK! The arrow suddenly protruding from the tree beside his ear made Rahkesh jump. A quick flurry of other arrows followed, but Rahkesh had already dropped to the ground. He landed, conveniently half hidden by a demon wing.

"Ah!" Rahkesh rolled over; Nic was still standing, miraculously unharmed. The cry had come from the Inca who had tried to sneak up behind Nic; said Inca now appeared to be dead or unconscious at his feet. Nic was holding a staff, where had that come from?

A man raced past, armed with an axe, Nic cracked him over the head and he crumpled to the ground. Rahkesh rolled to his feet and drew knife, hurling it into the throat of another charging Inca.

The arrows seemed to have been the signal to attack. Now Inca were appearing everywhere. Rahkesh ducked another arrow, thankful of the dense forest for its protecting.

"Reducto!" That particular spell had some rather nasty effects upon a human, Rahkesh mused, especially when it hit the throat. An effective, if messy, way to kill. "Fulguris!" Several people screamed as lightning lashed out, and thunder cracked and rumbled, halting the Inca in their tracks. They hadn't prepared for people with magic.

Someone shouted an order. The Inca shifted about a bit.

"Duck!" Nic shouted as another flight of arrows soared through the trees. Rahkesh ducked and tried to roll behind the demon again.

"Argh!" He couldn't stop his cry as he felt one arrow sink into his arm. Crap. This day just got worse and worse. Rahkesh cast a banishing charm, throwing a whole troop of Inca archers head over heals into the dense undergrowth. Then collapsed onto his side

Seeing Rahkesh go down Nic pulled out a handful of powder from one of the pouches attached to his belt, threw it into the air, followed by another powder from a different pouch. Then he raised both glowing hands and shouted. With a great whoosh of air the powder blew out into a thick fog. Nic waved one hand and a sudden gust of wind blew the fog out in a circle around them. Arrows came flying through the air, but, unable to see, the Inca couldn't aim. Second later they were retreating to keep the fog from touching them. Nic rolled across the open trail to his side.

"Okay?" Rahkesh nodded, gritting his teeth. The arrow was imbedded deep in his arm. Nic examined the wound quickly while another flight of arrows bounced of the demon's partially extended wing.

"It's barbed. I can't pull it out. The only thing to do is to take it out the other side." Nic said, pulling out a knife and cutting off the end of the arrow. He braced Rahkesh's arm against his thigh and, before Rahkesh could realize what he was doing or protest, rammed the arrow all the way out the other side of his arm.

Rahkesh's vision went gray, he might have screamed, he couldn't tell. The arrow was drawn out the other side of his arm, showing vicious backward facing barbs and a long trail of blood.

"Sorry, Inca poison their arrows, the quicker they're removed the better." Nic apologized as he ripped up the bandages he'd used earlier to clean out Rahkesh's shoulder wounds and wrapped them around his arm. Around them the fog was thinning.

WHAM! An axe landed beside Nic's foot. Nic jerked back and spun, striking out with his staff. The staff smashed the Inca behind them in the groin, and then cracked him hard under the chin, then again over the head. He collapsed to the ground atop the unmoving demon. The fog was gone and the Inca returned.

"We're surrounded." Nic said, lifting his head a few inches to check. He waved his hands again and screams erupted about the forest. Nic pointed and two Inca collapsed, writhing.

Rahkesh got to his knees, searching the forest for the traps they had littered it with earlier. Anything to use against the Inca. Switching to parseltongue he called, listening for any reply from the venomous snakes he'd released.

A sudden scream distracted him, Nic was fighting off six very determined Inca. The men had axes and one was holding a broken bow. They were dodging about as Nic's deadly staff swung at their heads. Rahkesh pulled himself half up and without really thinking conjured up a wave of acid. A particularly nasty spell he'd learned from Daray.

The Inca fell, screaming and trying to wipe the acid off them. Nic efficiently knocked them all out in seconds with swift blows to their heads. Rahkesh sagged again, he hadn't thought about how much energy full chemical conjuring like that took. Usually he didn't even think about it. In his injured state it was almost more than he could take.

Another flight of arrows soared in; Nic ducked away and readied himself for another attack. Rahkesh, gritting his teeth so hard he thought they would crack, cast a few healing spells, and then pulled Nic down beside him. The fight had restarted the bleeding from Nic's head wound and he did not like the gray color Nic's skin was turning.

"Hold still." He told him, casting a quick healing spell. He knew nothing of head wounds, but the injury identification charm hadn't showed any major damage. So he assumed it wouldn't hurt to heal the flesh wound. Hopefully they'd get to a real healer soon.

"Any ideas of how to get out?" Nic asked. Rahkesh glanced around, trying to think of something. Rahkesh shook his head and cast another lightning spell at a trio of charging men. They all collapsed with screams and the noise from the thunder shook the ground. Listening to the deafening rumble and the screams Rahkesh started to hear another sound as well.

Slowly it rose around them, a deafening blood curdling war cry that stopped everyone in their tracks. Seconds later the screams were so loud Rahkesh had to cover his ears.

Then hordes of men and women wielding machetes, knives and staves charged into the clearing and swarmed over the Inca. These people were not tattooed, and they wielded superior weapons with amazing skill. Rahkesh rose to his feet as he watched the hordes of Inca falling down and dying in a visible wave as the newcomers charged through them like dragons through a heard of sheep. Beside him Nic started to laugh with joy.

"The Xuelhuala! They're here!" He called to Rahkesh over the death screams and war cries.

XXXXX

Ever since his arrival at Vailape Rahkesh had been hearing about the Xuelhuala warriors, continuously, just about every day. Lacking any form of religion the famed defenders of the Chachapoyaro were the closest things to gods the Chachapoyaro had. It seemed to be the dying ambition of every young child to join the warriors in their hidden city deep within the mountains. The Chachapoyaro sincerely believed that there were no fighters, anywhere, that could best their warriors. The Chachapoyaro were arrogant about a lot of things but their smug supremacy in the fighting arts bordered on obnoxious.

The unfailing devotion the citizen of Vailape showed the secretive warriors had always amazed Rahkesh. For such a logical, often cynical, people, they either had an amazing blind spot, or the warriors were really that good. Every command from the hidden city was followed instantly as if it were a mandate from god and when the warriors had shown up to help the city through the plague the local defenders instantly bowed to their orders without the slightest complaint. The warriors of Xuelhuala were always right about everything. And, to Rahkesh's surprise, the warriors never abused that respect and obedience.

Now, seeing the warriors destroy the Inca like an industrial lawnmower through a field of high grass Rahkesh had to admit that perhaps the fame was completely deserved. Never had even imagined such efficient ruthless killing to be possible. The Xuelhuala warriors destroyed the Inca, at a run. Their speed was frightening, even at a run they could cut down a score of Inca in less than a minute. Behind the advancing lines of the warriors not a single Inca was left alive. The warriors moved in three lines, one behind the other, the first two mortally wounding the enemy and the third finishing them off. Not a single Inca put up enough for a fight to slow them even for a moment.

As the massacre passed behind them and away into the forest, the Inca now fleeing in terror, the fourth line came through. These warriors made absolutely certain that each and every Inca was dead. They also were disabling all the remaining traps (there were almost none left) that had been put up only two days earlier. Behind them came a patrol. Eleven warriors running a slow lope, checking each trail for any injured allies. Nic waved a hand and beckoned them over.

As the men and women surrounded them Rahkesh, feeling safe at last, went to check on his vampire friends. The warriors saw the demons and did a complete double take at the sight of the two unconscious demons, and two unconscious vampires, who were all still glowing.

Rahkesh cast a charm to reveal any injuries. As he ran it over the vampires he was relieved to see that the injuries taken in battle with the demons were healed. But neither vampire was moving, neither was conscious, and Rahkesh went cold as his scan of their brains revealed absolutely no brain activity at all.

"Rahkesh!" Rahkesh turned, to see Silas running down the trail behind the last of the patrol, Nuri bounding along beside him. Sygra was wrapped around Silas's neck.

Rahkesh sighed in relief, and then threw himself out of the way as Nuri let out a roar and charged the demons. Before their startled eyes the panther went right for the throat of the nearest demon (which happened to be the darker one) and ripped into it with claws and fangs. Snarling and growling the panther gnawed into the neck, spitting out scales.

"Nuri!" Silas said, pulling the panther away. "What is that?"

"That," Rahkesh replied, "is a demon." Silas stared at him, then grabbed Nuri by the collar and dragged him away.

"Nuri stop it. That things blood can't be good for you!" The younger panther snarled at his owner and threw himself forward again. Silas yanked him back and pressed the panther to the ground with a hand at the back of his neck. Nuri spit and hissed furiously.

The eleven warriors formed a circle around them, eyeing the demons warily.

"How did that happen?" The woman who appeared to be in charge finally asked.

"The Inca. They summoned the demons to help them." Rahkesh replied.

"And the vampires?"

"Got into a fight with the demons. I have no idea what's happening right now." Rahkesh said with a shrug. He was exhausted and his head was starting to spin. The adrenaline of the brief fight was wearing off fast and his arm ached. His whole body ached. Rahkesh sat down on a fallen log and slumped.

Silas caught Rahkesh as the human suddenly toppled to the ground. Levitating Rahkesh the vampires finally stunned his panther to stop the enraged cat. Sygra slipped off Silas to wrap herself protectively around Rahkesh.

"What happened?" Silas asked. Nic, who was sitting down and looking deathly pale, shook his head, wincing when it pulled at his wound.

"A very long story. Can we go back to the city first, before I pass out as well?"

XXXX

Late that night the warriors finally called it off, returning to the wall and the city. Over a hundred sentries posted about the forest and mountain would sound an alarm if anything happened. The demons, in chains, were brought back and chained to a few massive boulders against the mountainside. A score of warriors and a half dozen sorcerers stood guard over them and the vampires.

The vampires were still out and still glowing. Kalahimran and few of his best sorcerers were examining the vampires and demons, trying to figure out what was happening.

His head wound, and the minor concussion, healed, Nic told them what had happened to the four. Predictably the sorcerers threw a collective fit at the idea of Rahkesh drinking dragon blood. But the fit the Xuelhuala warriors threw at the idea of the Inca summoning demons was much worse.

Thirty warriors were dispatched to the clearing where the summoning had taken place, accompanied by four warrior-sorcerers. Nic explained its exact location and that the altar had been made of solid gold, and was therefore very heavy. Moving it would not only be very difficult, but would leave an obvious trail through the forest.

Xeri collected Daray's bat and convinced the creature to leave off pining for its master long enough to feed and rest. Satan had settled onto Daray's shoulder and promptly started shrieking and wailing, unusual high-pitched sounds that no one had ever heard a bat make before. The bat's reaction to its master's state hadn't done anything to calm anyone.

Rahkesh was oblivious to all of this, still unconscious. Xeri, Vey and Silas settled around their own fire with their two exhausted friends. The healers had said that all Rahkesh really needed was sleep. Nycahalia had studied Rahkesh's magic and had come to the same conclusion. He was magically exhausted so far it was amazing he wasn't comatose.

Silas had enervated Nuri, but the panther had to be restrained again from attacking the demons. It was well after dark before Silas calmed him enough to sit down and relax a little.

"You're sure there were only two demons?" Silas asked Nic as the three ate dinner. Nic nodded.

"Yes. I don't know anything about portals but it looked like it heated up more and more with each demon, it was glowing by the time the second one was completely through. Another few might have melted it." Nic recalled.

"That's why there are never very many demons in this world, the portals can't handle it." Rahkesh whispered softly. The three looked at him, Rahkesh blinked and looked around. It was dark out, there were no clouds and the stars were visible. Nic was cradling his head in his lap while Nuri was draped over his legs. The great cat purred softly, the sound rumbling through his body and into Rahkesh.

"How do you feel?" Nic asked. Rahkesh closed his eyes again and searched, from his toes to fingers, searching for any pain or damage. He felt fine. Exhausted, but otherwise fine.

"Okay. Daray and Sharahak?"

"Still out, and still glowing. Kalahimran is starting to think that there's some sort of telepathic/mind-link going on." Silas said.

"The healers say you need to sleep. The more you sleep the quicker your body will repair itself." Nic told him. Rahkesh snorted.

"Sleep? When Daray and Sharahak are sharing their minds with demons? Not likely."

"It is the fastest way to heal." Nic told him, Rahkesh rolled his eyes.

"And I want to be awake if anything happens," he said. The three traded looks and glanced over at the healers. Nycahalia had been rather adamant about Rahkesh sleeping. Xeri signaled something to Nic over Rahkesh's head and Nic nodded. He placed his hands on Rahkesh's temples and slowly began to massage his scalp. His hands were still covered with the gold gloves and they soon began to glow. A warm, contented, sleeping feeling began to spread throughout Rahkesh's body. In second Rahkesh was asleep again.

"Neat. What was that?" Silas asked.

"A type of magical hypnotism." Nic said as Rahkesh went limp and relaxed into a deep sleep. "Very effective."

"About the vampires. What _are_ we going to do if they wake up possessed by demons?" Xeri asked. The others had no answer.

"We'll deal with that if it happens," Silas decided. Nuri looked over at the demons and growled.

XXXX

Rahkesh woke the next morning feeling better rested than he'd ever felt. He was lying on his back beside the still warm remains of the fire, head pillowed in Nic's lap. Sygra was coiled on his chest, watching him wake. She was also glaring at him with a sort of absolute fury Rahkesh hadn't seen before. Oh no.

_You are NEVER going ANYWHERE without me again. Do you understand?_ The snake demanded. Rahkesh stared for a moment, then he thought about that.

_Absolutely. Not happening again. _Sygra flicked her tongue and waited. _But you know I can't do that. I can't take you everywhere._

_Someone has to look after you, obviously you can't do it yourself. And the vampires weren't much help. _

_I'll try not to leave you behind, but you really can't go everywhere._ Rahkesh said with a sigh. Sygra twisted her head about and tucked it under her coils. Communicating with out words her displeasure at that.

"What did the snake say?" Rahkesh looked up to see Nic watching the annoyed serpent.

"She doesn't want me to go anywhere without her again. Apparently I can't take care of myself." Rahkesh said. Nic smirked.

"She has a point." Rahkesh stared.

"What?"

"Hmm, well there was the fight with the dragon, then drinking dragon blood, then getting bitten by a vampire, then getting attacked by demons, then getting poisoned by a demon, then taking an arrow through your arm…I don't know, she might be right." Nic said as Rahkesh glared up at him.

"You're not helping."

"You do have the worst luck."

"Or the best. I lived didn't I?"

"And we still don't know what the dragon blood actually did to you."

"No, but I'm alive. And the blood was probably good."

"Is such a series of events normal for you?" Nic asked. Rahkesh shrugged.

"Maybe. A little. Sometimes." He said. Nic snorted in disbelief.

"I'll take that to mean that such things happen frequently."

"Not that often!"

"Of course not." Nic drawled, clearly not believing a thing a he was saying. Rahkesh huffed in annoyance; he didn't get into such messes that often!

"What's happening?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

"The Xuelhuala warriors have the forest covered. No threat really. It's the demons that has everyone worried. Them and that dragon. Something needs to be done about those demons, and no one knows what to do." Rahkesh carefully removed Sygra from his chest, wrapping her around his neck. Sygra glared but didn't complain. Nic helped him sit up and Rahkesh looked around.

It was well after dawn but much of the camp wasn't stirring yet. There were sentries everywhere and smoke was rising from the morning cook fires. A larger group of sorcerers, easily visible in their colorful robes and holding long magical staffs was standing beside the bodies of the demons and vampires, talking amongst themselves. Kalahimran was there, easily identified by his bald head and white eye patch. He was waving his staff in circles over a demon. And then talking to a apprentice who was writing things down. Alert warriors were surrounding them, watching the demons for any sign of life. Silas was with them, sitting on a rock watching his unconscious cousin glumly.

Rahkesh got up and walked over to them, Nic following. Silas ignored their approach but Nuri growled a welcome.

"Feeling any better?" Kalahimran asked.

"Yes. What's happening?" Rahkesh asked. Kalahimran gestured to the demons.

"Well we know what's going on here. This isn't the first time the Chachapoyaro have encountered demons. The city of Xuelhuala has records from many centuries ago of demons attacking, they captured the portal used from our enemies at that time, along with all their records." Kalahimran explained. "The demons are weaker than they would ever otherwise be after first coming into this world. How weak depends upon the portal. This portal was poorly built. Most portals can't be moved. In making it mobile its creator also damaged any demon that tried to get through. So much energy is expended just getting into this world that there is little left."

Rahkesh found that hard to believe. The demons had been plenty strong enough the way they were. They could be even more dangerous?

"So what is this?" He asked, gesturing to the demons.

"Well we can't say for sure, but by examining the magics we have some idea. The demons knew they were weak and so when given the opportunity they tried to take over the vampire's minds and bodies, drain them of their magic and strength. Only Sharahak has evaded body snatchers before and your friend here has some powerful magics. And they both noticed what was happening in time to partially block the demons. The demons can kill them this way by feeding off the vampire's magic and life until they fully die. In order to stop it I think we'd have to kill the demons. While somehow separating the vampire's minds from those of the demons." Kalahimran finished with a sigh and shrug.

Rahkesh had no formal education on mind magic, but even he could see the problem. How to get to the vampire's minds without getting trapped by the demons? And, once there, how to separate the two enough that the demons could be killed without harming the vampires? Like surgery to remove a deadly parasite. A parasite with telepathy, magic, and ability to kill instantly when awakened.

"Do you have any people good with mind magic?" Rahkesh asked.

"Yes, Nycahalia is very good at it, the best we have. And with Silas here, and yourself, getting Daray out is certainly possible. But I don't know about Sharahak. He doesn't have any blood relatives…" Kalahimran drifted off, staring sadly at the dying vampire.

"Actually that might not be true. I saved his life with my blood, I'm sure that created some sort of connection." Rahkesh replied. Kalahimran's one eye brightened immediately.

"yes, yes, that could be very useful. Let me go talk to Nycahalia." Kalahimran hurried away, leaving them to watch the unmoving demons.

"We were very lucky." Nic said finally. "They could have been a lot more dangerous." Rahkesh nodded his agreement.

"He'll be fine Silas. We're going to get him out as soon as Kalahimran comes back." Rahkesh assured the vampire. Silas didn't appear to hear.

XXXX

"Remember telepathy of this sort is inherently dangerous. If at any time you start losing contact with your physical body leave at once. Whether you're done or not get out as soon as you feel the connection with your body starting to fade. Understood?" Nycahalia asked. Rahkesh and Silas nodded. The sorceress placed her staff aside and directed them to their positions surrounding Daray. The three sat down and got comfortable, the process was likely to take several hours. While they did that Kalahimran sat down beside Sharahak, while Rahkesh sat between Sharahak and Daray. Kalahimran had decided that freeing both demons at once was probably the best thing to do, which was making Rahkesh nervous because he would be helping to free both of them.

It was fairly easy for the four to reach the vampire's minds. The telepathic fight going on was quite 'noisy', in that they could find the vampires by the amount of telepathic energy they were giving off. The instant Rahkesh started trying to reach he was swamped by uncontrolled, undirected telepathy. The excess power flowing off the four battling creatures. Colors and sounds and sensations poured across his mind, none of them making any sense, all of them random. He could feel the fight going on. Harsh telepathic energy struggling back and forth for supremacy.

Rahkesh had never done telepathy like this. This was mind magics of the sort that a master would perform. He understood telepathy very little, having learned what he knew from books on occlumency, meditation, and observing the vampires. But Nycahalia's directions had been exact and easy to follow. She was talking now, though Rahkesh could barely hear her.

"You need to find your way to the one you want to reach. Try to find the telepathy that matches their personality." She said. How Nycahalia could talk while surrounded by unrelenting waves of telepathy was something Rahkesh couldn't fathom. He was being so drawn into the telepathic maelstrom that it was hard to think or hear, he could understand what Nycahalia had said about getting lost in it and loosing connection to your physical body.

He found Daray first, it was fairly simple, he knew Daray's fighting style. Even in a telepathic battle that didn't change. Slow powerful attacks, then a single lightning quick vicious attack, followed by another series of slow blows. Then another strike, fast, and highly damaging. Rahkesh felt as though he could see his friend's mind warring with another presence.

The plan was to slip between the demon and vampires, while still letting them fight. Molding his mind to their battle so that neither sensed him. Once he and Silas were both like that then they could make their presence known and throw the two back into their own minds and bodies.

The demon's mind was as different from Daray as oil form water, and they mixed about as well. Rahkesh could clearly see the line between them. His goal was to become that line, so that the energy of each attack flowed though him unchanged, as though he wasn't there.

Rahkesh slowly slipped in, unnoticed, and let his own mental presence drift between the oil and water. The fight was now going on all around him, the destructive energy of both flowing through him. It didn't hurt. Rahkesh was quite surprised with this development. He had assumed that being between the two would mean feeling the brunt of each attack. But with the attacks flowing through him he didn't feel their destructive power. He was getting pushed back and forth along the line, but he wasn't being harmed.

fascinating Rahkesh felt Silas say across the waves of telepathy. The vampire joined him, moving with the battling powers. I've been telepathic all my life but this is new Rahkesh, not sure if he could speak or if he would be heard, chose to stay silent. Drifting back and forth with each strike and block he could do, but direct communication wasn't something he wanted to try.

Silas, being a lot better at this than him, was assessing the situation. Rahkesh couldn't figure out how to tell who was winning or loosing, or how bad off either side was, but Silas was watching and detecting things that were beyond Rahkesh's ability to sense.

this is not good Silas said. The demon's magic is present throughout Daray. We may be able to separate the minds, but it could destroy Daray physically. Rahkesh didn't ask how that was possible, he didn't see how mind magic could destroy a body, and just trusted that Silas knew what he was doing.

A third presence joined them, this one was Nycahalia, and she was being very cautious. She didn't know either presence and was only touching their mind with as little power as possible. She must be very skilled at mind magics indeed, Rahkesh realized, to easily navigate and around and between all four minds without being sensed.

Rahkesh, if you are ready you can reach out for Sharahak, just follow me Rahkesh didn't respond, but Nycahalia reached out again and sensed his agreement.

This was the really tricky part, being present in both battles at once. They would have gone one at a time but for the problem of one demon notifying the other of the attack. As it was Rahkesh would have very little presence in the battle between Sharahak and the demon. Kalahimran and Nycahalia had known the vampire all their lives and would be doing most of the work there. Rahkesh needed to be able to sense that battle because his connection with Sharahak would allow him to 'talk' the vampire into doing what was needed if he proved problematic.

Nycahalia formed a bridge of sorts between the two battles, Rahkesh just followed her. Here he could observe the second battle and be ready to help if needed. Nycahalia then joined Kalahimran's invisible presence in the other fight. Nycahalia then reached out to all of them.

When I say make your presence known and tear the two apart, make sure that no part of either mind is left behind with the other. Ready. Begin!

Rahkesh and Silas attacked, instead of moving along the line when the two fought they stayed put, refusing to move. Now they were absorbing the attacks instead of allowing them through.

The immediate impact of the last blows struck hit Rahkesh hard. Pain and fury washed across his mind in furious waves. He tried to ignore it and stayed where he was. The two overpowering presences clashed, the demon striving to attack again, while Daray quickly understood what was happening and tried to move back into his own mind. Reaching out to the other battle Rahkesh sensed Sharahak doing the same.

Then the problems began. The vampires couldn't return to their own minds. The demon magic that they had sensed throughout the vampires wasn't so much the demon's mental presence, as it was a physical magic that now fought against the vampire's retaking control of their bodies.

A mind without a body quickly dies. And the demons were not going to let the vampires get away. The people watching saw the glow around the four intensify to the point that it was hard to look at.

Suddenly Rahkesh and Silas were no longer in charge of the separation. The demon called on its magic residing in Daray and they were being attacked from both sides. Daray's presence vanished as the demon lashed out from all sides.

The demon was very powerful, Rahkesh felt horrible pain spreading through his mind, and his body as it attacked with telepathy and telekinesis. Seeking to destroy those who had interfered. Rahkesh lost contact with the other battle going on, trying desperately to withdraw from this one. He could hardly sense his own body anymore, the demon's presence beating him down too much. Suddenly Silas vanished. Rahkesh searched for where he had gone and abruptly sensed a physical presence in the telepathic battle. Following he found himself again.

Rahkesh reeled and collapsed as his mind slammed back into his body painfully. Someone was holding onto his arms, dragging him away from the vampires and demons. Somewhere he could hear screaming. Everything seemed very faint and dreamlike.

SMACK Some slapped him. Rahkesh reeled and shook his head, everything fell into place. He was lying on his back several meters away from a glowing pulsating light that covered the demons and vampires. Rahkesh looked around. Everyone was watching, the warriors with bows drawn and machetes ready.

Kalahimran, Nycahalia, and Silas were sitting beside him, Silas looked to be unconscious. Nic was kneeling beside him; he must have been the one who'd smacked Rahkesh.

"Sorry, you were passing out." Nic said softly. Rahkesh shrugged and looked over to the others.

"What happened?"

"It didn't work." Nycahalia replied when Kalahimran didn't.

"And?"

"We don't know." Nycahalia said after a moment. Those watching say the vampires and demons started glowing like the sun right before we all started screaming."

"I don't remember screaming."

"Neither do I," Silas moaned from the ground. Kalahimran and Nycahalia had risen and were walking around the bright light at contained the vampires and demons. Their staffs were glowing and Nycahalia had her eyes closed as she searched out what was happening with her mind. Kalahimran worked more with physical magic, waving his staff to get bursts of light and muttering to himself. Silas looked over at Rahkesh, Rahkesh shrugged and watched. The two met and whispered for a few minutes before coming to a decision.

"Well, there is one solution." Kalahimran said finally as he sat down beside them. His one eye was tired and sad.

"Given how strongly the vampires and demons are now connected they're not all going to survive. We know now that we can't help the vampires, they're going to have to do this by themselves. The demons are attacking the vampires from both sides, from within the vampire's bodies and then telepathically. However in attacking them like that they left their own bodies undefended. The vampires have utilized that. They've taken up a small amount of control over the demons, and the demon's magics, as accessed through their physical bodies rather than their minds. The vampires, however, are dying."

"So what do we do?" Rahkesh asked.

"What we can do, in essence, is to arrange a body switch." Nycahalia said. Transfer the vampires into the demons living bodies and the demons into the vampire's dying bodies." Rahkesh stared, body transfer?

"Uh, that's better than death but my cousin might be a little upset if he wakes up a demon." Silas said.

"Better than death, as you said. And we'll have to do it soon." Nycahalia replied. Silas thought about that, then he nodded.

"Very well. How do we do this?"

"We told you earlier that losing the connection between mind and body is extremely dangerous. All four of them are losing that. All we have to do is to drug the demon's bodies and their minds will lose the connection. We then need Silas to signal them, with vampiric telepathy, to pull everything from their own bodies, into the demons. We then have the vampires withdraw their minds until they're in the demons bodies entirely, and then knock them unconscious so that can't be harmed as easily. We then kill the vampire's bodies, which the demons will have been forced to occupy." Nycahalia explained.

"The two of you are geniuses." Rahkesh told them. "Can we start?"

XXX

The drugs took an hour, since they had to be customized for demons, and the best potion brewers knew nothing about them. Rahkesh and Silas waited impatiently, eager to get their friend out.

The drugs were administered and then they waited while a healer timed the demon's pulse, waiting for it to slow a little as an indication that the drug was working. That in itself took over an hour, as the potion brewers had underestimated the demons.

Silas settled as close to the blinding light as he dared, eyes closed, and searched out his cousins mind, and then Sharahak. Without distracting them he gave an impression of their plan. Rahkesh watched, with his own mind magics, fascinated by the mind magics. Despite months of watching the vampire's magics he still couldn't duplicate them himself, though his abilities had increased a million times over from what they had been a year before.

Knocking a demon unconscious proved to be rather difficult, they simply couldn't tell when they were actually unconscious because they couldn't see them. Nycahalia used her mind magics to check, but the demons bodies were built for battle and it took several hits with a club from strongest of the warriors before Nycahalia decided that they were unconscious.

Next they had to kill the vampires bodies. Which was difficult because they couldn't see them. Again the sorcerers were necessary, they picked out the vampires and demons with magic.

Kalahimran killed Sharahak's body himself, with a long spear through the heart, followed by a wave of fire from his staff.

As the fires turned Sharahak's old body to dust, something unexpected happened.

There was a massive magical backlash.

The demon was not going to die that easily. The first indication anything was wrong came with a massive wave of power that sent every person in the crowd, over a hundred of them, spinning across the ground. Rahkesh felt his body picked up as though by a tornado and flung away. He hit the ground and rolled to his feet, staggering.

Sparks and flashes of light were flying from the location of Sharahak's body. Loud roars and screams echoed from an non-existent throat. Lightning crackled and bursts of flame flew out twenty feet. Black whorls of magic flung themselves in every direction, melting the earth where they hit. Then the massive disembodied magic found an outlet for its fury, the body of the vampire.

The demon's last magics turned on Daray's body, turning it to ash it in a rush of heat and black fire. Then the demon's spirit dissipated, finally defeated.

The remaining demon glowed more and more, and then the ashes of Daray's body began to glow as well. The ashes rose into the air and settled over the dark demon that was now Daray. They glowed bright gold and were absorbed into the demon in seconds.

Then both the bodies began to glow even more, the light grew so bright everyone began to back away. Finally stopped, and began to shrink, halting at last in a small bubble of light surrounding the two unconscious vampires in their new bodies.

Silas got up and carefully approached the glowing bodies, finally having to close his eyes from the light. Just as he got into the part in the center, and started to vanish, a crackling trail of electricity streaked out and hit him.

Silas didn't have time to scream, he was thrown over Rahkesh's head and slammed into the rock side of the mountain with such force that the ground shook. Several of the warriors were beside him in an instant, but the vampire appeared to be unconscious. Nuri leaped, from lying on the ground, straight into the air at the light. Rahkesh caught the panther in a mobilicorpus spell before he could get knocked out as well.

Nuri turned on him, roaring and hissing. Rahkesh stunned him, the panther shook the spell off, snapped Rahkesh's mobilicorpus spell with a shiver, and lunged again at the demon bodies.

This time there was nothing to stop the panther; Nuri vanished into the bright light where the vampires lay with a scream of fury. Second later the sounds of snarling and growling were heard. The group watched, unable to do anything. After several minutes though, the bright light began to fade. Then Nuri came flying out of the glowing mass as if his tail was on fire. He leaped over the people surrounding them and crouched beside Silas, growling and hissing, his tail lashing.

Silas slowly sat up and stroked the panther's neck, whispering in his ear and trying to calm the angry cat.

As the light faded the crowd peered into the center, searching what had upset the panther so.

Daray and Sharahak were awake.

The two demons rose and turned, unsteady on their four feet, but very much awake. The two looked at them, and then slowly approached the nervous crowd. Guards moved in, spears held forward. Daray hissed at them and glared.

"Stop that." He growled at them. The warriors were so shocked that they stood staring, open mouthed, as the two walked over to Rahkesh and Silas, and flopped down onto the ground. Nuri stopped hissing and growling and sniffed at the darker demon, Daray purred at him.

"Yes Nuri, just me, sorry about the smell." He rolled over, careful with his new wings, to glare accusingly at Silas and Rahkesh.

"That hurt." He whined.

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Whew! Wrote it all in seven hours. Seventeen pages on MW. Tired. Need to go to bed. Goodnight.

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Please review. As always. Next update coming as soon as I can, probably sometime next weekend, or the week after. I'm not making any promises.

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	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Rahkesh watched, greatly amused, as the healers and sorcerers went through the most thorough medical exam in history. It was well after dark by the time they finished poking and probing – magically and physically – the two vampires in their new demonic forms. Sharahak eventually stretched out and went to sleep, ignoring the healers as they examined the scales along his wing bones. Daray sat, staring grouchily at the ground as Kalahimran's students had him breathe fire repeatedly so they could document it.

The healers and sorcerers were over the moon at having two demons at their disposal. They took shavings off their claws, their teeth and their wing scales. They scraped off thin layers of the leathery skin from the wings, inside the ears, and from around the claws. They clipped the spines from about the necks to examine for venom, drew numerous blood samples, saliva samples, and tear samples. The two vampires sulked through the whole process, but drew the line at taking samples of cranial fluid (the stuff around your brain). Kalahimran finally backed down after Daray belched a massive burst of fire at him.

Rahkesh, Nic and Silas took a break for dinner, but the healers and sorcerers were too excited to sit still for even a second. Silas, being immune to the disease running through the city, was kept busy running back and forth to get various books ad references and equipment. The healers and sorcerers had a huge amount of equipment. Apart from the usual cauldrons they also had a distilling device, a liquid variation of pH paper, and a set of surprisingly powerful microscopes

"I feel like a lab rat." Daray complained as two apprentices started running some sort of test on his blood samples – the blood spontaneously combusted to whatever they had done, prompting shrieks of excitement and delight.

"A what?" Kalahimran asked, having never heard of labs. Daray shook his mane of spikes and growled at the head sorcerer, sending his apprentices skittering away in fear momentarily. Kalahimran ignored him and continued drawing a tiny sample of bone marrow (using magic to do so). The head sorcerer did not seem at all concerned about the possibility of being attacked. Daray scowled and took his anger out by kneading some rocks with his claws like a cat would, shattering the rocks in the process.

"Just wait until we get back to Akren." Rahkesh mused with an evil grin. The vampire's eyes went very wide and he moaned, slumping to the ground and covering himself with his wings.

"Nooo." Daray whimpered as Silas and Rahkesh started to laugh.

"They'll probably want to dissect you, I don't think demons are very thick about Akren and I'm sure the potions masters would love the samples." Rahkesh snickered gleefully. At last he wasn't the only one apprehensive about going back to face their teachers. Ignoring Daray's upset Kalahimran boldly lifted one of his wings and extended it while a student sat by with a very sharp knife carefully carving tiny chips off the claw at the end. Daray glared balefully at the two. Kalahimran ignored him.

"Maybe I can transfigure myself into a human, no one would know." He wondered aloud. Rahkesh thought back to the destruction of the two demons.

"Or maybe you don't have to," he said, "maybe your vampire form still exists." Daray's head snapped up to look at him hopefully.

"Just before you woke up. The remaining ashes from your body were absorbed into your demon form." Nic told him, "is it possible he could turn back?"

"I'd be worried about the demon still being in some existence in that human form." Kalahimran said, "but if you want to try…can you wait until we're done with the tests?" He asked, picking up Daray's tail to examine the spear at its end.

"TESTS! More Tests! What tests?" Daray yelped, whipping around to found face the sorcerer so fast that his tail sent several people toppling to the ground.

"Well we don't know what demons are capable of eating, or what harms them, how often they sleep, so of course you'll have to try a variety of things…" Kalahimran began, and then shut up at the furious glare he was getting, or maybe it was the rocks beneath Daray's claws splintering.

"Either it happens here or it happens back at Akren." Rahkesh pointed out. Daray whirled around again, this time everyone ducked. Rahkesh backed away a bit while Daray thought about that.

"Neither."

"You know that's not possible."

"Yes it is." Daray insisted weakly.

"Somehow I don't think Namach is going to take that for an answer, and the other professors won't either." Rahkesh said dryly, seeing that Daray was going into another sulk he tried for something better. "On the other hand you can fly now."

Sharahak woke up (if he'd actually been asleep) and looked over at Daray, Daray looked over at Sharahak. Then they both rose, ignoring the healers annoyed calls, and with a few beats of their massive wings took to the air.

The first flight didn't last long, they both came crashing back to earth in seconds, and spoiling the landing horribly so that they went head over heals across the grass. But the two were up again in seconds. The sorcerers gave up on their tests for the moment and ate dinner while the two vampires turned demons practiced their flying. It was nearing midnight before they returned to earth.

"That is amazing!" Daray said happily as he finally managed a perfect landing and ran over to where Rahkesh, Xeri, Nic and Silas were sitting. Both vampires had quickly mastered the demons land movement as well, an odd looking loping run that could turn into immense high speed leaps like those of a rabbit when they ran at full speed.

"Looks like fun. Can I become a demon?" Xeri asked. Daray flapped his wings to shoo the sorcerers away but Kalahimran just ducked and hurried over to start taking another blood sample, wanting to know if flight altered their blood chemistry somehow.

The sorcerers and healers were finally forced to call it a night when the patrols sent to find the altar returned. Taking advantage of their distraction Daray and Sharahak leaped into the air and took off for a rocky ledge high above the camp.

"Shall we join them?" Silas asked. Nuri had gotten up and was already finding the path up the mountain.

"I don't think your panther likes all these people." Xeri said.

"No he doesn't, are you coming with us?" Silas asked as he got up to follow his pet. Rahkesh and Nic joined them. Xeri and Vey opted to remain in the camp to reunite with a third sister, who had joined the Xuelhuala warriors two years previous.

The three scrambled after Nuri over the boulders. The two demons had chosen to perch on a massive pile of rocks that stuck out from the mountain, giving them an excellent view of the city and forest.

"How well can you see in the dark?" Rahkesh asked as they reached them.

"Very well, even a little better than I could as a vampire," Sharahak replied. "I like this form."

"I don't" Daray muttered, "Namach's going to throw the world's greatest hissyfit when we tell him about this. Can you just imagine what this did to my blood magics?"

"There's always a chance that the blood magic wasn't affected." Rahkesh said. Daray flapped his wings and didn't respond. The two demons settled on a massive rock above them while the other three and Nuri picked out a flat spot on the ledge to sleep. Silas conjured an invisible barrier to prevent them from rolling off the mountainside.

Sygra unwound herself from Rahkesh's neck and coiled up on his chest as he lay down.

_The winged vampire smells weird._

_You can tell who he is?_

_Yes, much of the scent is still the same. _ Sygra told him, Rahkesh wondered if perhaps the retaining on his former smell might be a sign that Daray could turn himself back into a human again.

_What about the other one?_

_His scent is almost completely different. _

_Interesting. Sygra, yesterday, I attempted to contact you telepathically._

_I heard, I sensed that you were calling me. I got Nuri and Silas down of the big cliff, we met a tree snake at the bottom who had a message from you. _

_Perhaps we should work on that telepathy when we get back to our time. _

_An excellent idea, it would be easier if I could look after you that way when I can't be with you. _

_Overprotective much?_

_I have reason to be. _Sygra told him sternly, and coiled up again to sleep. Rahkesh watched the black and silver serpent, wondering when he'd managed to acquire a magical black cobra for a mother. Silas lay down on his left side and Nic on his right, Nuri huffed and pawed his owner aside until there was room for the big panther between them. The cat walked all over Silas as he circled to find a perfect spot, then gave up and simply flopped bonelessly to the ground between them.

"Brattish feline." Silas muttered as Nuri yawned in his face before going to sleep.

XXXX

Some day he was going to write a book about demons, Rahkesh decided. And in that book he was going to mention that demons snored. That ought to repay Daray for everything the vampire had ever done to annoy him.

It was nearly dawn and Rahkesh had awakened to hear two raspy, growling snores from the slumbering demons.

They also growled and twitched in their sleep like dogs often would. He would write that down too. Rahkesh decided, as a massive black wing flopped over the rock at his back missed his face by centimeters. He was sitting against the rock, the demons sleeping atop it. Nuri was awake and bathing his claws with an attention to detail worthy of the greatest painters, Silas sleeping on the panther's other side. Nic was sleeping curled up against Rahkesh's left and Sygra was currently hunting a small mouse-like rodent that had strayed onto the open ledge. Rahkesh was watching his serpent hunt. He enjoyed watching her hunt. It was very careful and precise, stealthy and graceful.

The black wing flapped once, the rodent bolted in surprise. Sygra struck, putting her fangs an inch deep into its neck.

_Nicely done_ Rahkehs told her approvingly. Sygra didn't respond. The rodent died and Rahkesh watched with interest as Sygra detached her jaws and swallowed it whole.

Up above him the two demons woke, Rahkesh heard them both roll to their feet simultaneously and he glanced up, wondering what had woken them.

"Good morning." Neither demon replied. Rahkesh stood up and climbed onto the top of the rock. The two demons were staring out over the mountainside, motionless. Rahkesh turned and looked to where they were staring.

Near the horizon there was something moving in the forest, something huge.

"Enireth." Rahkesh said, this time both demons looked at him. "The dragon."

"He's headed this way, dragons don't usually walk do they?" Sharahak asked, Daray and Rahkesh shrugged.

"The Inca must not be letting him fly after what happened last time." Rahkesh said, "lets wake the others and the guards. If Enireth is coming the Inca are probably with him."

"Don't they ever give up?" Sharahak complained. He glanced at Daray and received a nod in return. Rahkesh ducked as two massive sets of wings unfurled around him, and then the demons leaped off the mountainside and soared down in spirals to the waking camp below. Rahkesh went to wake Nic and Silas.

By the time they reached the camp everyone was awake and preparing for battle. With the Inca forces decimated from the attack the arriving Xuelhuala had pulled they weren't much to worry over. The worry was the Inca sorcerers, who had been mostly invisible so far. Apart from their restraining Enireth they hadn't been seen in actual battle yet.

Kalahimran was, Rahkesh quickly learned, an excellent strategist. The old warrior sorcerer knew he had an advantage and used it well. He posted group of sorcerers along the mountainsides with warriors to guard them from a direct attack while the sorcerers occupied themselves solely with the magic. His people were given precise instruction on using the magical vines in the valley, rather like Nic had the day before, to impede the Incas progress. He called on a few other sorcerers to begin a weather enchantment that would send thick clouds out over the advancing Inca to rain on them, while leaving the area below the wall clear. The Inca would arrive drenched and with the clouds magically held just back from the wall the warriors atop the wall would still have an excellent view of the enemy. The Xuelhuala took positions along the wall, with patrols hidden on the mountainside forests armed with bows and darts and machetes.

"You said you spoke to the dragon telepathically?" Kalahimran asked when Rahkesh arrived at the camp.

"Yes, he is fairly young you know, and the Inca are rather cruel to him, he doesn't like them but doesn't have any choice but to fight for them. I also think they might have some sort of mind control going on, his personality change between his initial attack and when we spoke as rather drastic." Rahkesh replied. Kalahimran thought that over for a moment.

"Well we can't have a rogue dragon wandering around. Your job then, Rahkesh, is to make contact and get that dragon away from the Inca. Take care of that first." Rahkesh nodded, not sure how he would accomplish it but sure he could. "Take Nicodemus and the demons with you."

Rahkesh and his friends packed up their weapons and descended into the forest. Nic led them on a wide arc around any possible adversary that might be headed for the wall. They didn't see any Inca but Nuri kept looking into the forest, his ears up and alert, as if he could sense something. Nic had brought a small parrot with him, and messenger bird to send back.

"Can Sygra sense the Inca?" Nic asked. Rahkesh had the black and silver cobra wrapped around his neck.

_Sygra, can you sense anyone out there?_

_Yes, but they are not close by, they are headed for the city._

"They're not far away, headed for the city," Rahkesh relayed the message. Nic released the bird into the air; it turned and flew back to the wall. There was no need to a letter; the bird was only to be sent if they found the Inca position.

"It'll take them less that a half hour to get to the wall," Nic said, 'lets hurry, I'd like to be back for the battle."

"We will be." Rahkesh said, finally coming up with a plan. "Daray, Sharahak, Silas, I need you to shut down your telepathy as far as you can okay?" The three nodded and began, Rahkesh waited until he couldn't sense them anymore, then he called out.

Enireth! There was no response, nothing to indicate the dragon had heard him. Rahkesh tried again, and again. Getting annoyed Rahkesh remembered the dragon's mind, the feel of his power, and tried again.

Enireth. This time he got a response, far off in the jungle came an unearthly roar.

Enireth can you hear me? Another roar, vaguely Rahkesh sensed a barrier between himself and dragon's mind. Recalling how Snape had simply shoved his minimal occlumency aside during the so-called "lessons" Rahkesh did the same, batting whoever was trying to telepathically restrain the dragon away like an annoying fly.

Enireth. 

Who are you? Rahkesh nearly toppled over at the amount of power the dragon put behind his mental reply.

Rahkesh…remember? 

Yes. You are alive then? 

Yes. Are the Inca still holding you captive? There was a very long pause, broken by the sudden eruption of screams and shouts and blasts of magic not too far away. Then everything went quiet.

Their magical nets are too strong for me to break. The dragon finally admitted.

We're coming to get you out. Rahkesh received a faint hint of thanks in return. "Nic, can you get us to the point all that noise came from without being seen?"

"The Inca are near the old caves; tell the dragon to keep making a racket." Nic replied, he turned and took off down another trail Rahkesh hadn't noticed before. Rahkesh sent Enireth the message, and immediately heard a roar and some screams not far away.

The trail Nic led them down was surprisingly well marked, once you knew it was there. It zigzagged widely, following planted flowers that were supposed to appear random. The thick canopy kept it dark near the forest floor and the flowers were a dark violet and green, hard to distinguish from the undergrowth. They did not encounter any Inca, and at the pace they were traveling they wouldn't notice anything until they were face to face with them. Nuri bounded along a bit ahead of them, and they watched the panther for any sign of other humans about.

Once informed that they were searching for him Enireth made it very easy to find him. The dragon put up an enormous fight. His roars and the shouted spells and curses of the Inca sorcerers assigned to guard him created enough of a racket to wake the dead. The bright bursts of light and flames served as a visual signal as they got closer.

The Inca were too busy getting their dragon under control to note the invaders presence. Nic picked out a few locations to hide in around the perimeter of the clearing in which the Inca were keeping the dragon.

On first glance the young dragon did not look at all healthy. He was thin and scarred, with many new gashes and burns open and oozing blood. Enireth also had glowing rings of magic tied about his neck, tail, legs, and wings. The magic must have hurt because the skin about the magical bindings was blistered and raw looking. In addition he was blindfolded, apparently an attempt to calm him, a technique that worked with many wild animals, but certainly not an angry dragon.

We're here. Calm down for a moment while we figure out how to get those spells off you. Rahkesh sent out, Enireth quieted quickly.

"This isn't good." Daray said suddenly, "there are more demons here." The two vampires-turned-demons were sniffing the air anxiously. Silas cast a smell-concealing charm on them. If the other demons hadn't sensed Daray and Sharahak yet then they had an advantage.

"Can you two attack the Inca and their demons while we free Enireth?" Rahkesh asked. Daray and Sharahak nodded.

"Any ideas?" Rahkesh asked Nic. Nic had put on the strange glowing gloves the Chachapoyaro used to direct and enhance their magic. Nic shook his head.

"Severing spells. Or just kill the sorcerers." Silas suggested.

"We'll need to distract the warriors for a few moments, get in at the sorcerers while the warriors are busy. How about it Nuri?" Rahkesh asked the panther. Nuri raised his head looked at him. "Silas?" Silas bent his head to the panther's ear and began talking softly, Nuri listening intently, as if he really could understand.

_Sygra, go with Nuri, look after him? He's going to try to distract them._

_I can't go with you?_

_No Sygra, the magics I'll be using might harm you, and I'm not sure how the dragon would react. _

_Very well._ Sygra grumbled, and Rahkesh knew he'd be hearing about this later from the over protective serpent. He took Sygra off his neck and wrapped her around Nuri. Sygra wound herself into his collar. Nuri seemed to understand what Silas was asking; because once the snake was in place he slunk off through the undergrowth towards the Incas. Daray and Sharahak took up positions around them, watching for the other demons the Inca had summoned.

Shouting broke out amongst the Inca warriors assigned to guard the sorcerers, they were pointing and talking excitedly. An agonized scream ripped through the air, and several of them went racing into the forest towards its source. Nuri must have disemboweled someone. There was another shriek and a few more warriors left.

"Now?" Rahkesh asked, and received several nods.

The five charged out into the clearing, Enireth roared and ripped at his bonds, straining the magics. The warriors turned from looking towards the forest in shock. Rahkesh hurled a series of silent spells at the edges of the clearing; a magical barrier sprang into existence. None of the warriors were coming back to surprise them.

Silas sent cutting spells at the magical ropes, followed by a magic nullifying spell Rahkesh had never seen before. The magics flared and emitted sparks, zigzags of interrupted power raced across the magical bonds. Enireth bit into the magic at his feet and with a sound like crackling tin foil it melted away.

The sorcerers had woken from their stupor and realized that they were under attack, and about to loose their dragon. The immediate response was several massively powerful spells. The bonds recharged and came back to life, little bits of magical flaying the air about the dragon.

One sorcerer held a staff skywards and shouted - a streak of magic shot into the sky.

A high-pitched scream reached them; Rahkesh looked up to see four beings flying down out of the sky, demons. Daray and Sharahak took to the air, beating their wings hard to gain altitude.

"Fractum!" The spell was designed for bones, but the purple light hit the startled warrior right through the heart and he fell, twitching as his heart was snapped open. Rahkesh dispatched the remaining three warriors quickly; they had no magical defenses and were easy prey. The others off chasing Nuri couldn't get back in, and Nuri was quite capable of killing most of them, and he had Sygra. Rahkesh didn't worry about the panther, he could take care of himself.

A massive bolt of blue missed his ear by inches. Rahkesh dropped and rolled. Silas had ripped off Enireth's collar and was fighting through the magics on his feet. Rahkesh leaned out around Enireth's side and watched, these sorcerers held staffs with feathers and skulls attached. Big bulky staffs, a nice target.

"Reducto!" The sorcerer screamed as his staff splintered.

Up above the six demons came together with a sickening crunch, followed by flapping wings and screams. Because they were trying to stay airborne they also couldn't easily close with each other. The four new demons were trying hard to avoid that. In his typical contrary way Daray did the opposite. Daray wrapped his tail around one of the other demons and lifted his wings above it, coming down from above bite its neck reach forward to rake its eyes out with his claws. The demons immediately began to fall towards the ground. The attacked demon twisted in mid air and turned its neck and tail to breath fire and try to stab him. Daray put his hind claws through its wing and tumbled away before its tai, whipping back like a scorpions, could get him. The other demon was waiting and ripped a series of cuts into Daray's sides. Daray flipped over onto his back, the demon wings were designed for any kind of flight, even upside down. One of the attacking demons dove, going for the belly and neck. Daray, instead of trying to avoid it, allowed the other demon to bowl him over backwards, grabbed onto its shoulders, breathed fire in its face (to which it responded in kind) and used the massively powerful hind legs it rip open its abdomen. Daray pulled away and flew skywards again, leaving the mortally wounded demon to tumble to the earth.

The demon fell away, screaming in horrible agony as the shredded intestines fell out. Rahkesh looked back to his own battle; clearly the demons could also take care of themselves.

Spells were crashing all around them; one blast ripped open the earth at his feet. Rahkesh put up a shield and conjured several patroni. The solid silver creatures charged about until Rahkesh sent them to intercept the spells sent by the sorcerers.

Another spell almost hit him. Rahkesh sent of a series of rapid spells, followed by one massive whip spell that knocked two sorcerers off their feet.

Rahkesh felt his barriers weaken, then fail. Turning he saw a tall man running towards him, carrying a staff covered in skulls, bones, and feathers. A flight of arrows whizzed past. The man was shouting, and the sorcerers were rallying to him. Rahkesh hurled shields around Enireth.

The spells were a strange vibrating orange, followed by a horrible shock wave. Rahkesh stumbled, but the shields held. The newcomer cursed and, to Rahkesh's horror, ripped away the shields entirely with a wave of his staff. This would be the head sorcerer then.

The man threw spell after spell. Rahkesh ripped up huge chunks of earth and threw them back to intercept, then he sent out a series of blasting spells. Nic was moving his glowing hands, and the air was humming with magic. Winds blew, and then became something invisible and solid. Nic's magics flatted three sorcerers into the ground; bones broke, shockingly audible over the battlefield.

"Sonaro acaris!" the sorcerer twitched and stumbled before throwing off the spell. He waved his staff and the earth split open, and sealing spell stopped that. Rahkesh began hurling fireballs and multiple stunners. The other sorcerers were having trouble, but the man in charge just shook it all off. Running out of options Rahkesh tried again.

"Ruptum!" the sorcerer batted away the spell and returned another. Rahkesh ducked as his newest shield fell. "Pestilentia!" He ducked a sickly green spell and tried again. "Capto aridacrura cerebrum!" Rahkesh roared, twice. The second spell hit. The old man crumpled to the ground silently, and did not rise.

It was a fairly easy spell to dodge, but it had the seeking portion _Capto_ attached, something Rahkesh had only recently learned existed. It could be guided towards an opponent even if they ducked. A little known bit of information he had learned by spying on a practice duel between two professors. The rest of it was a curse, a truly awful horrible curse, which dried and shriveled the brain away into a tiny desiccated lump, very much dead. It was fast, for a curse, though the speed at which it worked could be altered, Rahkesh had used it to kill as quickly as possible. Daray's comments about his sadism aside Rahkesh wasn't really into making people suffer _that_ much.

With the death of their leader the Inca sorcerers were first afraid, and then furious. They shouted into the trees, probably for reinforcements, and more came running.

Wide range blasting and fire spells could keep the ordinary non-magical warriors at bay, but the sorcerers were slowly approaching.

More sorcerers were appearing, they must have been in a camp in the woods, inside his barrier. There were a _lot_ of them. Rahkesh had gotten the impression that the Inca only had a few sorcerers. Beside him Nic was throwing two of them at each other repeatedly until their heads collided and they collapsed.

Rahkesh felt a burst of pain in his leg, followed by another in his shoulder. He yanked the darts out, but whatever poison they might have had would already be in his system. He had healing potions in his trunk, but now was not the time to get them. There were warriors in the trees with darts and arrows, that was very bad.

Nic gasped a shocked breathless sound. Rahkesh turned to see an arrow protruding from his friend's shoulder, and another from the center of his chest. Nic stumbled to the ground. Silas was absorbed with the ties holding the dragon, and the sorcerers were now attacking. Blasts of magic were hitting the dragon repeatedly, and he was roaring in pain. By superior numbers, if nothing else, the Inca were going to win. Rahkesh cast a quick healing spell on Nic, hoping to keep him alive long enough to get help, he had to end this soon.

A massive burst of flame from amongst the tree startled him. The warriors there were being attacked, screams and cries came form the charred area, and flames were shooting out from between the trees. There was someone in the forest there, helping them.

Rahkesh took a few deep breaths and closed his eyes, remembering the technique he'd learned in the room of requirement. Think about the physics of the spell intended, think about generating the power to create otherwise impossible reactions. When he was ready Rahkesh stepped out from behind Enireth to face the score or so of sorcerers.

_FULGURIS!_ Rahkesh sent the spell out silently, keeping his mind and body relaxed, and every thought and intention bent upon the massive surge of electricity.

Like it had in Diagon Alley his magics responded.

Because of the immediate spontaneous generation the thunder came at the same instant the lightning did. And the noise left everyone temporarily deaf. The massive crack of sound waves made the earth shake and the blinding light even behind his shut eyelids was painful. Unable to see Rahkesh guided the bolts of electricity by where he could sense the opponents.

There weren't even any screams, just the massive continuous noise that filled his mind to the point of excruciating pain. Distantly Rahkesh was aware that the electrical charge was so heated that it wasn't just electrocuting the Inca, it was literally frying them as well.

And then it was over, Rahkesh relaxed, and stood still. The silence hurt almost as much as the pain had. He opened his eyes but he couldn't see a thing, his vision ruined by the light.

Something hit the ground hard beside him, Rahkesh twitched away in surprise and fear. Unable to see or hear he was a sitting duck. Another thump and the sound of flapping wings. Darkness was closing in, he was feeling very weak, his head hurt. Someone was holding his arm.

Slowly his vision cleared and his hearing returned, someone was channeling healing energy into him. Why was he lying on the ground?

Daray was beside him, using a healing spell to remove the effects of his lightning spell.

"Obsession isn't healthy. Perhaps you should see a psychiatrist." The vampire stated. Rahkesh chuckled weakly and reached out a hand to Silas, who helped him up.

The four demons were dead, his lightening had done them in too. And all of the Inca nearby.

Nic was lying on his side, breathing in partially controlled gasps. Enireth was free, and Sharahak was lying unmoving, in a crumpled heap.

Enireth blinked a few times to clear his own vision, then surveyed the scene. Without Rahkesh even having to ask the dragon turned, and extended one wing, leaning his shoulder down. Silas and Daray picked up Sharahak and lifted to demon onto the dragons back. Rahkesh levitated Nic up.

With Rahkesh, Silas, Nic and Sharahak on Enireth and spell in place the dragon beat his wings a few times and leaped.

Rahkesh held on tightly as they rose, the massive beats of the dragons wings propelling them skyward. Daray flew alongside, healing his own minor wounds as he flew.

In the distance bursts of color showed the Inca battling with Kalahimran and his sorcerers. But Rahkesh's vision was going dark again and the world became very distant, and then vanished entirely.

XXXX

It was three weeks before Rahkesh was allowed to leave the healers wing. Sharahak, being a vampires and demon, healed in a week. Nic was up and about after six days. Three weeks was a long time. Long enough for the poisons on the darts to run their course. Long enough for his magics to recover fully. Long enough for the last of the ill to die in Vailape, and for the surviving citizens to start rebuilding their lives.

By the time Rahkesh was healed Daray had figured out that he had indeed retained his vampire form, and could switch between vampires and demon at will, as if it was no more than an animagus form. Sharahak however was changed for life.

The Inca had fled, and when they had the Xuelhuala had captured the altar. It, however, was almost useless. Portals could only handle so many demons and this portal was almost dead. At a guess two or three more demons could have passed through it, but no more than that. The Xuelhuala had hidden it away in the mountains (since it was indestructible), and were currently working on finding a way to disable it rather than destroy it.

They had also discovered that the demons who had come through the portal had been young demons, since adults were too large for that particular portal. This meant that Sharahak and Daray were not yet adult demons. They would still grow magically, though their physical growth was finished. This explained why the demons had used so little magic, they didn't _have_ any more. The portal might be able to physically handle adult demons, but it couldn't withstand their magic.

When Rahkesh had awakened he had been in the hospital, which was finally cleared and cleaned of the dying. He had been unable to see or hear, both senses badly damaged, and had difficulty doing even the tiniest bits of magic. His eyes and ears recovered within a few days, but his magic had taken weeks. The stress of the dragon's blood and the magics he had performed had been more than his body and magic could handle. Nycahalia had done a reading of his magical signature, to find that it had changed considerably. This was a relief; he wouldn't have to disguise his magic any longer. Magically Harry Potter no longer existed. Rahkesh had all the same powers and magic's, but the way they felt had been altered, and were too different to be identifiable. Magical signatures were as unique as a handwritten signature, and Rahkesh's had changed. It was as if he had changed his handwriting. Nycahalia said that his magic was more in tune with him (whatever that meant) than it had been before, but Rahkesh had not yet had the chance to test that. And he hadn't yet tested his bloodmagics either. Partially because he was afraid of what he would find, be it good or bad it still frightened him.

Sygra had not let him out of her sight for the entire three weeks. The serpent had had time to calm down by the time Rahkesh woke, but the tirade had still been fairly impressive. Rahkesh had done his best to point out that it was necessary but Sygra wasn't having any of it. Though Rahkesh thought she was secretly proud of him Sygra had made absolutely sure that he knew that she did not want to have to find another owner any time soon.

The day Rahkesh was allowed out again was the same day that the healers released Enireth from their care. The young dragon still bore some horrific scars, but the worst of the damage was healed.

With Sygra wrapped around his neck Rahkesh climbed the mountainside up to the largest ledge. Enireth and the two demons were flying above, practicing some impressive aerial acrobatics. The Xuelhuala had returned to their fortress and the forest had been cleared of all the traps left. The Inca had been buried in a mass grave.

Nic joined him up on the rocks, and soon Silas and Nuri found them as well, the panther tackling Rahkesh and purring happily. Enireth spotted them and dropped down to settle across the mountainside high above them. The two demons folded their wings and dropped out of the air. Daray landed on the rock behind him and Sharahak landed beside him, buffeting Rahkesh and Nic with waves of air from his wings. The group sat, soaking in the sun, and watching the birds flying above the forest.

"Well, we finally figured out what Nuri's magical abilities are." Silas said. "He can hypnotize people. He had two of those sorcerers attacking their own warriors." The vampire scratched the big cat behind the ears, "so nice of you to finally figure that out Nuri." Nuri purred and lay down, limp content cat style, across their legs.

"Hypnosis. How on earth did he come by _that_ ability?" Rahkesh asked.

"No idea. I thought he was just a normal panther." Silas said, "which makes me wonder what else he's capable of."

"He isn't telling you?" Nic asked.

"No. Either he doesn't know or he wants to surprise me." Silas said. Rahkesh examined the happy cat purring at them, he looked awfully smug.

"Oh he knows. He's just waiting for the right time to show you."

"How long until you must return to your home?" Sharahak asked.

"Seven months? About that long." Rahkesh said. The demon nodded slowly.

"You know a lot about vampires Rahkesh." Rahkesh looked up at the demon curiously, "so I think you'll understand what I'm asking when I ask that you give me a vial of your blood before you leave." Rahkesh nodded slowly. He knew what Sharahak was asking.

Rahkesh pulled a vial out of his pocket, it was a hollowed out diamond, filled with blood. A tiny gold loop was magically melted onto one end, making it easy to hang from a chain. He handed it to Sharahak, the vampire bit his finger and a few droplets of blood hit the vial. The blood inside glowed, and then went back to normal. Sharahak conjured a gold chain and hung the vial about his neck.

Vampires held life debts in even higher regard than humans did. With Sharahak carrying a vial of his blood he would be able to summon the demon/vampire at any time to aid him. And Sharahak would answer that summons as quickly as physically possible, regardless of the situation. It was rare for a mortal to have a vampire at their beck and call, and, if Sharahak was still alive in their time, it would mean that Rahkesh had one of the world's few over-a-millennia-old vampires on his side. Sharahak would be about sixteen hundred years old in their time, not a true ancient like Namach, who at something much over three thousand was almost unimaginably old, but plenty old enough to warrant great respect amongst other vampires.

XXX

"Grandmother is going to grill us about this place for _decades_." Silas said as they packed their bags. It was their last day with the Chachapoyaro in Vailape. They had to return one hour after high noon. If they missed that time they would be stuck for another year. Though that did not seem like such a bad idea – and the three had seriously discussed staying – they had eventually agreed that it was time to go home.

They were in Rahkesh's room, with Nic sitting on the edge of Rahkesh's bed and Xeri sitting on the windowsill. They had created two trunks like the one Rahkesh kept for the vampires. Both vampires had done what Rahkesh had, and pierced one ear. The trunks were made so that they could be put inside the small obsidian earrings. Because they were inside the obsidian, which was on hollow and on tiny hinges, no magic was used to keep them there. This meant that they could not be sensed by magical means.

Rahkesh placed the last of the sixty-something potions he had made in its spot. He had used his time with the Chachapoyaro to make a lot of potions that only the Chachapoyaro knew of. He also had almost a hundred pounds on potions ingredients, and seeds for various plants that could be used in potion making. He had also collected two or three live specimens of a score of different animals. Many of which were extinct or unknown in his time. He planned on keeping them, for now, in the family vault in the out-of-time cages. Someday they would be useful.

The three had worked hard for their remaining months at Vailape, helping to rebuild the city. People from the other Chachapoyaro cities had come to Vailape, and with such a drastic population decline all of the population controls normally in place throughout the cities had been temporarily removed. Those in charge of overseeing population control had worked things out so that anyone who wanted children was now permitted to have them. But the overseers had been careful to organize things in such a way that there would be no immediate massive population increase. Those who had been applying for the right to have children had been given permission, but it had been staged so that no population bubble would occur. With a slow buildup of population they were safe from having too many people. And Vailape and the other cities would slowly return to their previous occupancy.

In addition to potions and plants and animals and fighting they had worked on their magics, wandless, thread, and blood. And they had learned a bit about feather magic and stone magic. Two things the Chachapoyaro were very skilled at. They had learned to identify potentially useful feathers and stones and collect them. Though the Chachapoyaro put little value on gems, outside of magical uses, the three had collected many extremely valuable gems from the mountains - a small fortune of them actually. They had studied healing and learned minor weather magics from Kalahimran. They had also worked on their blood magics. After the battles with the Inca were over Daray and Silas had both been suffering heavily from too much exposure to the sun. More than anything else that had been what took the longest to recover from. Both vampires had since finished the next stage of their bloodmagics, enabling them to spend a little over a week in direct sunlight before the effects became damaging.

Rahkesh had finished the third and final part of his stamina runes. He could continue to improve his stamina with another piece but he hadn't decided to do so yet. There was danger in overdoing one thing. The dragon blood had shown no real effects so far, which confused everyone. Since the dragon's blood had had no obvious effect Rahkesh had decided that he ought to take the opportunity to continue his bloodmagic. In addition to the stamina he had the night vision enhancing runes, he had completed three stages of the reflex improving runes, three stages of the strength runes, one set of runes that effected the mind to improve memory, and two pieces that were designed to stop most minor illnesses such as ordinary colds, minor infections, and minor allergies.

As a parting gift Xeri and Nic had presented them with three beautifully made staffs. Non-magical and meant only for fighting they were perfectly made weapons. They had also given them each a bow and a set of arrows, made from the bones of the demons the Inca had summoned.

"Rahkesh, Daray, Silas, it's time." Sharahak said from outside the door. Rahkesh flipped his pack onto his back and picked up Sygra. Daray tucked Satan into his backpack and drank a short-term energy potion. They were hoping to avoid passing out again. Silas did the same and removed Nuri's collar. The huge panther shook his head and purred, happy to be free of it.

"We're going to miss you." Rahkesh told their friends.

"We know. Try to keep out of trouble. And do come back and see what's become of our people in your time." Nic told them.

"We will." Silas promised.

The sorcerers, and may of the citizens, had assembled to see them off. Nyahalia had already set up the runes and readied them. The three hugged their friend's goodbye, and waved to Enireth, who was sitting curled around the mountaintop. The dragon, now an ally of the Chachapoyaro, roared in reply. They moved into the center of the circle, and Nycahalia and Kalahimran activated the runes. They waited for several minutes, and then Daray cut his hand and placed it against the hand print on the rock. There was a massive flash of light and everything went dark.

XXXX

It was raining. It was _pouring_. They were lying, drenched, on a wet boulder the size of a house in the middle of a flooding raging river. A scene awfully familiar. Rahkesh cast water repelling spells. Silas rolled over and stood up. Rahkesh hauled himself to his feet and helped Daray up.

"Well, we certainly returned to the same time and place." Silas said, his voice showing the relief they all felt. "Levitate?" Rahkesh nodded and they began levitating from the massive boulder in the middle of the river to the bank. Nuri complaining loudly when they lifted him off his feet. Silas threatened to drop him in the river, which shut him up really fast.

"Silas and I will ride on my broom and levitate Nuri, you can fly." Rahkesh decided, Daray handed them his backpack and transformed into a demon.

_Flying!_ Sygra hissed.

_Would you rather remain in the rain?_

_No. _

_Then we fly. _

_But I HATE flying. _

_The alternative…_

_Oh fine_ Sygra hissed, and curled moodily under the hair on the back of his neck. Rahkesh took his broom from his trunk, and then replaced it in his earring. Daray leaped into the air and flew above them, Silas performed a point-me spell and found the direction of the mansion.

"We've got a long flight."

"Ever ridden on a Firebolt before?" Rahkesh asked.

"No."

"One hour tops." Rahkesh informed him. Daray placed some charms on himself Rahkesh didn't recognize to speed his flight up.

"Bet I make it back before you do." The demon said in a deadly purr. Rahkesh laughed and shook his head.

"Not a chance."

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Okay, end of chapter. Don't expect a new chapter for a week or two; I have four tests and one lab report due next week. Argh!

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Sorry I had to bring them back to their own time, but it had it happen. I also apologize for the sloppy ending to their time with the Chachapoyaro. I'm very bad a mushy, sad, teary, goodbye scenes. I tend to just walk away myself, so I wrote it that way.

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Next chapter they'll be back at Akren. And we'll see why Akren admits so many students, but is still such a small school! Oh and Saul's (remember him?) fate gets decided. I think. I'm not entirely sure what to do with him, but I've got to do something. And we get to see what the teachers think of what happened to them. I'm already working on that scene, it's fun. I think Namachs' lizard will have to make an appearance. I love that creature.

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Please review. Reviews are good. Reviews keep me alive.

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	20. Chapter 20

Many thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I hope you enjoy this one.

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Chapter 20

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The sun was just beginning to set over the valley, the sinking orb turning the flanks of the mountains brilliant shades of gold and pink and orange. The bright light sinking into the snow covered slopes and causing the tall evergreens to send out shadows many times taller than they actually were. The mists rising from the hot springs turning a smoky pink and orange in the light while the ghostly shapes of herds of animals wandered through the fog. A dragon rose from down the end of the valley and flew up over the ridge top and into a massive cave in the mountainside. A pair of Rocs were flying above Akren Mountain School of Magic in an elaborate mating dance around Akren Mountain.

Rahkesh stood in front of the mirror, he checked again to make sure his disguise was working, not that he needed much of a disguise anymore. The dragon's blood had finally had a noticeable effect. His eye color had changed. The killing-curse emerald green had been replaced with bizarre, hypnotic, captivating gold, black, and silver. Streaks of the three running through his eyes in a dazzling array. He found it a little frightening. But he no longer needed the eye-color changing potions. And he still had the green. When he used magic to call it up his eyes would turn green again. The only disguise he needed now was a name and fake skin to hide the scar.

Satisfied with his disguise he brushed some dust off his shoulder. Akren was having its yearly ball/all-school-party. Costume of some sort was expected, or at least an effort to dress decently. Black pants, black boots, both decorated with dark gold, wide-sleeved dark gold shirt – unlaced halfway down the front, the usual obsidian chip earring, and the usual tasers in his boots and wand holster against his leg. He also wore a necklace of gold, emeralds, and feathers given to him by the Chachapoyaro healers. The feather and stone magic in it was extremely powerful. The bright feathers and emeralds were a little gaudy for Rahkesh's taste, but he wasn't about to ignore such power. And the gold pendant in the center was a beautiful work of art, a dragon's head. He had a small knife hidden at the back of his neck, concealed by his long wavy hair, and second knife in the second sheath on his other thigh. Of course all the weapons had intense notice-me-not charms, vision repelling spells, concealment charms, and shape/size obscuring spells.

Rahkesh leaned down to tie on boot, when he straightened again he glanced in the mirror and froze.

Daray was sprawled across his couch, as usual, taking up far more room than ought to be physically possible. Once again the vampire had somehow gotten into the rooms without him noticing. Rahkesh glared furiously at the smirking vampire in the mirror, then gritted his teeth and tried to ignore him while he placed notice-me-not and other concealing charms on the earring.

"Saul is still alive." Daray informed him gloomily. He was in his human form, since showing up as a demon to the party might not go over too well. The vampire was dressed entirely in elegant black, silver, and gold, looking very much like Rahkesh but with a black shirt. Over that he was wearing a lightweight black silk, velvet, and fur cloak.

"Not surprising." Rahkesh replied.

"I find his survival to be insulting."

"You think he does not deserve to live?"

"Exactly."

"Who are you to judge such things? In the eyes of many _you _don't deserve to be alive."

"It isn't the same."

"Isn't it?"

"No it isn't." A tired sigh.

"How so?" Rahkesh asked. He watched in the mirror as the vampire fed the bat his blood from a fingertip. It was morbidly grotesque to watch, but neither blood drinking species- found it at all odd.

"Saul frequently tortures mortals for the fun of it. And I do mean tortures. He does the same to other vampires, anyone who he can get that can't fight. He has no reason to. Most of them are genuinely good people. He takes joy in killing _nuns_." Daray explained. Rahkesh thought about that.

"Very well."

"I knew you'd see things my way."

"Perhaps."

"What?"

"Saul should be killed."

"So you agree, what's the issue then?"

"If you want him dead, then at least have the courage to kill him yourself." Rahkesh told the vampire. Daray stared at him for a moment. Then he nodded.

"I agree with that. And I will."

"When?"

"When I'm done torturing him."

"Have you been?"

"No. But I plan on starting tonight. I tracked him down earlier." Daray grinned sadistically, "he's lost quite a bit of blood." Rahkesh went to work on attempting to transfigure a cloak. Daray waited for a reply, and got none. The vampire sighed and shook his head. "You're angry at me."

"There's no need to torture and humiliate him."

"No worse than what he's done to countless people."

"And therefore reason enough to do the same to him."

"Yes."

"An eye for an eye only works in theory."

"Does it? I rather think it works very well. And even if I didn't have a reason to kill him I still could if I wanted to. He cannot outfight me therefore it doesn't really matter whether he deserves it or not, if I want to kill him I can." Daray pointed out. In the vampire world that was entirely true, survival was power and the more powerful had the power of life or death over those weaker then themselves. "But I can't kill him just yet."

"You want to have some fun with him first. And you have to wait until summer break, or until he leaves the valley again." Rahkesh said, Daray nodded. Rahkesh let the argument drop; he was not getting involved with the way the vampires did things. He had enough to worry about. And whatever Daray did to Saul the bastard really did deserve it. Rahkesh gave up on the cloak and tossed it aside. He turned around and walked back across the room. Rianae had appeared in the second it took to turn around. She was in the armchair. She was too was dressed for the party, dark green, black and gold robes over black pants and a dark green shirt. The colors suited her well. Rahkesh stared hard at her for a moment, then snarled and stalked past to the shelf where he kept his transfigured furniture. He took down another armchair and enlarged it. The two vampires were smirking at him.

"Do you have to do that?" Rahkesh asked. Referring to their habit of appearing silently when his back was turned.

"It's amusing." Daray said.

"Go bother someone else."

"We do. Everyone." Rianae answered. "Tanya didn't make it." Rahkesh rubbed his forehead and nodded, another one down. They had been back at Akren for less than twenty-four hours and news so far had all been about the students who didn't return.

Akren might take in a lot of students but almost a third of them would not survive to graduate. Students who didn't like Akren were not permitted to drop out – they knew the school's secrets. If they ran away there were the professors and alumni waiting for them. You had to remain in school until either you graduated or died. This meant that those who came to Akren either didn't have a clue what they were setting themselves up for, or really truly did want to be in such a place. Because most students really did want a learning environment like what existed at Akren they worked off each other to push things farther and farther. Competition in Akren was fierce and bloody. This year hadn't been so bad – first year students were given a break, especially during first semester. They didn't have the power to bother anyone, and no one knew where they stood or what they could become, and were nervous as a result. After the first year, or semester depending upon the student, things were different. Reckless ambition was high, especially with things such as bloodmagic that promised power and superiority. _Four_ people had attempted blood magic over the break and died. No one mourned them.

In the vampiric tradition of killing off most young vampires it was expected that over half of the vampires admitted to Akren would die. The survival rate for young vampires outside of Akren was much lower. The survival rate for werewolves, because of pack dominance competition, was only a little better. This winter they had been fortunate, no werewolves had died. The vampires had not been so lucky, at least three of them had been killed off, possibly more, the end count wasn't in yet.

"How?"

"Duel with another student she somehow insulted." Rianae answered with a shrug, such things were fairly common. But they only got lethal outside of Akren. Rahkesh wondered again over the casual familiarity with death so common at Akren. Death happened every day, most of the students had seen someone killed or killed themselves. It was no big deal here. No wonder so many students couldn't handle it. And they weren't allowed to leave. How could someone like Tanya manage to offend anyone? For the first time since his arrival Rahkesh wondered how Thom was holding up.

"The others?" Daray asked, it had been Rianae's turn to find out how the dead students had died.

"Two of the younger vampires were executed by the master of Moscow. I killed the third." Rianae said.

"Why?" Rahkesh asked.

"Because he challenged me a duel and lost. And I didn't feel like letting him live." Rianae said. Again Rahkesh told himself that he was not getting involved. If the vampire who won the duel felt like killing the loser then that was their right and no one at Akren was going to interfere. "And if someone else doesn't get rid of him soon I'll kill Saul myself." Rianae told Daray. "And, if you don't mind my asking, what the HELL happened to you over break?"

Daray and Rahkesh winced, they'd been hoping to avoid any questions, but, as, Rianae had just demonstrated, the changes in both were fairly obvious to the vampires, or werewolves.

"It would be best if we only had to explain once." Rahkesh pointed out.

"You'll have to wait." Daray told Rianae, "if we tell you at all. It is good to have secrets."

"Fine. But everyone's going to be asking." She warned them.

Scent and magic masking enchantments in place – they wanted to avoid questions until at least after the party – they went down to the main hall. Dinner was being served throughout the night, and a wall had been removed to show a second hall of a similar size, the floor cleared for dancing. Not that anyone was likely to be dancing much. Not wanting to draw attention Daray and Rahkesh picked out seats in a shadowy corner. Rianae wandered off to find some unfortunate weaker vampire or mortal to feed on.

Parties at Akren were not exactly enjoyable, and, listening to the whispers going around, Rahkesh got the impression that there had been severe upsets in the vampiric and werewolf hierarchy over the break. This of course put everyone on edge.

Enchanting his ears to hear better Rahkesh also caught mutters of some fight going on between several fae students, with the other fae in the school taking sides, or starting their own. The veela were pissed at the vampires over something and the vampires were very nearly starting fights as they frantically reworked their pecking order. Rahkesh could feel the telepathic pressure in the room, emanating chiefly from the vampires, reaching almost intolerable levels. This of course was angering the fae students. Some of whom looked absolutely murderous. There was a good deal of telepathic posturing going on, but there was no fighting permitted in the dining hall.

Silas and Nuri joined them as the meal began, the panther had been washed and brushed until his fur practically glowed.

"Have any of the teachers seen you yet?" Silas asked.

"No. We're hiding." Rahkesh admitted, Silas snickered. Of the three he was the only one who didn't have to worry about being treated like a lab rat.

"You're finding this far too amusing cousin." Daray warned, Silas ignored the icy tone and boldly waved a hand to catch Ally's attention. Daray and Rahkesh shrank back into the shadows as the movement drew several eyes.

"Had a good break?" Ally asked.

"Well I did, can't say much for these two." Silas chuckled, drawing another round of murderous glares.

"Oh?" Ally asked curiously, "what happened?"

"Damn it Silas!' Daray hissed when Silas went to start telling Ally everything.

"I still have those tasers." Rahkesh growled, softly enough that across the table from him Silas would hear, but Ally would not. Ally looked between the three, and then looked around the room, it was packed. She was no fool; speaking of anything sensitive in this crowd was unsafe.

"Alright boys, I'll wait, but you _are_ going to tell me what happened."

"Maybe we could just hide for the rest of the year." Daray muttered, going into sulk mode. Rahkesh shook his head.

"No, I want to know if the blood did something to me besides the eye change. And you know very well that we wouldn't be able to get out of the room without being spotted by one of the teachers. And most of them would notice the change, whatever that is." Rahkesh whispered, Ally had conjured a tape measure and was measuring how much Nuri had grown, and ignoring them.

A sudden burst of telepathy brought everyone's attention to a group of vampires gathered at a nearby table. Three of them were on their feet talking angrily. One of them had blood running down the side of his neck, though the wound healed in seconds. Saul and the other vampire were snarling back and forth, Saul was losing control, and starting to shout. Other vampires began moving towards the group, and voices were rising, though still kept low enough that anyone without enchanted hearing couldn't tell what they were saying. The vampires were gesturing and magic was crackling through the air as they snapped back and forth, white fangs flashing. Saul raised a fist and shouted some insult about the other vampire's blood. Several vampires shouted back at him. One of them must have said something particularly nasty because several vampire's laughed and Saul's face went dark red, an amazing feat for the white-skinned vampire.

"You will pay for that!" Saul screamed, "I'll have you killed the moment you set foot out of the valley!" One of the vampires barked out something about Saul not being able to fight his own battles. Saul drew a knife, amid roars of anger – a fight in the middle of the dining hall, non-combat territory, could spark a battle between every other student in the school, and the vampires – Saul shouted something about how he'd have the inferior species killed too. Now the fae and werewolves, already angry, were on their feet and ready to fight. Rianae appeared from no where and moved to get between him and the weaker vampire he was intent on attacking. Saul balked for just a few seconds, wary of her.

And suddenly the mass of vampires went silent, a wave of roaring, furious, overpowering telepathy swamped the room, and when it passed the vampires quickly went back to their own tables, looking shaken and unsteady. Daray and Silas winced and shuddered as the telepathic command swept over them. Through the crowd, which was parting like the red sea before Moses, Rahkesh glimpsed a furious looking Tristan Namach bearing down on the troublemakers, who were looking rather petrified. Namach had dressed for the party in the garb the vampire lords had worn millennia ago. Dark red, cream, black, and gold robes, black gloves covering his entire forearms, gold/black armbands, jewels, sandals with real silver and rubies, and a long heavy dark red cloak that swept the floor, trimmed with glistening black feathers. The imposing figure with bared fangs and glowing eyes sent the vampire students scattering.

"By the way, just _what_ is going on with the vampires?" Ally asked. Silas and Daray shrugged, watching with great amusement as the ancient backhanded Saul - who had just opened up to complain about the interference - audibly breaking his nose and skull and sending him flying nearly twenty feet. He then picked up the other two vampires by their necks and carried them out of the room. Neither one offered the slightest resistance. There was a high balcony just down the hall, and Rahkesh had little doubt that both vampires were about to be dropped off the mountain. It wouldn't kill them but it would certainly hurt, especially if Namach drained their blood first.

When the doors slammed behind him the telepathic presence vanished, a collective sigh of relief swept through the room and the terrorized gleam began to fade from the vampire student's eyes. The fae seemed to collectively smirk and the werewolves growled approvingly.

"I think this happens every year after every break. Reestablishing who's where. But there's something different going on right now, ultra-competitiveness." Silas said.

"Grandmother mentioned the possibility of war between the vampires who think vampires ought to rule the world, the vampires who think we shouldn't, the ones who want all vampires to build their own world, the group that wants to enslave muggles, the group who wants to enslave the magic humans, and that new upstart group that wants to unify the muggle world under one government." Daray said, "There're a few other groups in there as well but those are the most substantial ones. Tensions are always rather high but recently things have been getting a lot worse."

"Worse? It was already bad, this is getting unnaturally violent." Silas said, "We've been back for less than twenty-four hours! I can sense others who are ready to kill."

Rahkesh had heard all about vampire politics before, but he agreed with Silas that this was way out of hand. Whatever news was circulating in the vampiric world it was sending the ordinary extreme competitiveness to a fever pitch. He was just grateful that his friends mostly ignored such things. The Ateres family would always have their well established role picking off cults and rogue vampires, no matter who was in power, and so they didn't much need t worry. Backed by Cyala Ateres they held themselves outside of the large part of vampiric society. But if some powerful group did emerge in the vampiric world, what would they do? Cyala did not seem like the type to just watch, and the ancient matriarch was extremely aggressive.

"You'll notice that only the younger vampires get so frantic about such things, with all their little political groups. Anyone over two or three hundred probably doesn't give a shit about any of it." Silas mentioned, "But this _is_ getting really bad. When was the last time you felt this sort of disturbance?" he asked Daray, Daray thought and shook his head.

"Never. But I do remember what grandmother said, about the older vampires occasionally finding it necessary to kill of large numbers of younger vampires to maintain some sort of calm and order among the species."

"That might be it then. The younger vampires know they've pushed it too far and everyone's jockeying for power so that they might be spared when the old ones finally get sick of them and start the massacres." Ally said, "Is that a problem for you?" Daray and Silas shook their heads.

"Not at all." Daray said with a ghoulish grin, "in fact we both might profit from such a purge of the species."

"That might depend upon what happened while you were on vacation." A silky smooth voice spoke from behind them. The group looked up to see Tristan Namach standing against the wall, encased in shadows. Apparently he had finished with the two nuisance vampires.

Daray and Rahkesh traded looks; apparently their attempt to hide hadn't worked at all. Namach was watching them suspiciously.

"Any chance that could wait until tomorrow?" Rahkesh asked. Namach stared at him, and then raised one dark eyebrow. "Never mind."

"Anywhere else we can talk?" Daray asked, looking pointedly at their crowded surroundings.

"My rooms I suppose." Professor Namach replied in a growl. The ancient vampire vanished into the shadows, traveling through the shadows themselves, in a manner only a rare few vampires could manage. Rahkesh and Daray excused themselves and left, trying to avoid attention on their way out.

Namach met them in his rooms, opening the door and ushering them inside, shooing Eli the giant magical frill-neck out of the way. He motioned for them to take a seat on the couch in sitting room, picking the lizard up and moving him to the armchair against the wall when the magical frill-neck tried to get in their way. Eli hissed at him and promptly stalked off (as much as a lizard can stalk) into the bedroom.

"The enchantments on the room prevent anyone from spying." Namach said, "Now tell me what happened, and why I can sense demons and dragons all over you."

XXX

Burning red eyes narrowed, glaring down malevolently at the bowed blonde head.

"Lucius, I trust you have some progress to report."

"I am certain that he is no longer in the country my lord." Voldemort's foot hit Lucius Malfoy in the head, knocking him aside.

"That is not progress Lucius!" Voldemort snarled, Lucius cringed, "crucio!" The man collapsed, twitching, and soon started to scream. "I told you to find your traitorous son by midwinter! And what do you tell me? That he is no longer in the country? Worthless scum!" Voldemort snarled down at his screaming death eater. "Finite incantatem." Voldemort muttered. Lucius slowly tried to roll back upright, Voldemort kicked him in the face, blood splattered. The door swung open and a figure walked in, and stopped, seeing that his master was busy.

"My lord?" The new death eater asked softly, Voldemort kicked Lucius again and turned to look at the masked man.

"Severus. Send out word to the assassins; tell them I'm offering five northern wyverns to anyone who can bring me Draco Malfoy, alive."

XXXX

"Time travel is not so unheard of, though what you're describing is very rare. Unintentionally time travel is often deadly." Professor Namach mused, more to himself than to the two young men sitting on the couch. He was standing facing the window, bathed in the blood red light from the sun, which was almost gone behind the mountains.

"I have never, in all my millennia, heard of someone drinking dragon's blood and living, though I have heard of a foolish few who attempted it." The sun vanished, taking the light with it, Namach turned and walked back to them. "I even knew of one wizard who died from three milliliters of it." He said, fixing Rahkesh with a focused, powerful, look, as if he was trying to figure out his survival that way. "It only changed your eye color?"

"Nothing else, yet, that I know of." Rahkesh said.

"The potions masters and the healers should take blood, and bone samples. I would not be surprised to find significant chemical changes in your blood, and possibly alterations in your bone density. Perhaps a testing of your brain fluids would also be worthwhile." Namach said, "but since you, foolishly, decided to go ahead and keep working on blood magic I'm not too worried about that." Rahkesh shrugged, knowing that using bloodmagic before returning had been extremely foolish. But it had worked, and his instincts had told him it was safe.

"Did you feel that doing bloodmagic would not be harmful, or did you just try to it to find out?" Namach asked.

"I felt safe. Once I meditated on it a bit, I didn't feel like it would any more risky than bloodmagic usually is." Rahkesh said, he was surprised when Namach accepted that and just nodded. The vampire thought for a few moments, and then he pulled out a knife. Daray and Rahkesh watched with interest as he proceeded to make small cuts, in the shape of bloodmagic runes, on his skin. On his throat, cheeks, and palms, he made tiny incisions. These stopped bleeding, and began to glow. The glow spread, bloodmagic runes appearing, glowing, all across his skin until all his visible skin was covered with winding curling runes glowing in gold. The effect was shocking, but not in a frightening way. When Namach opened his eyes they had changed, the glittering silver eyes had a white/gold glow behind them similar to the bloodmagic runes on his skin. Namach watched Rahkesh for a few moments, and then closed his eyes; the runes vanished, leaving no cuts behind and not a hint of the bloodmagics hidden on his skin.

"Interesting." The old immortal said, he got up and went into one of the other rooms. Moments later he returned with two wine glasses filled with blood. He handed one to Daray, who accepted it with a word of thanks, and then went over to a bookshelf in his office. Rahkesh and Daray traded confused looks while Namach looked through the shelves, finally pulling out a large book bound in white dragon hide. He flipped it open and looked through a few pages before pausing to read.

Eli, the magical frill-neck, came out of the other room and walked over to stop standing in front of them, immobile but for his flickering tongue. Rahkesh held out a hand and beckoned him forward. Eli stared at him, and didn't budge.

"Come on Eli." Rahkesh said softly, the lizard blinked.

Namach put the book away and walked back over to them. He appeared to be very amused about something.

"I would guess, Rahkesh, that you will learn more about the full effects of the dragon's blood when you start working on your animagus transformation, and when you begin some of the high level bloodmagics this semester."

"I was admitted to one of the higher classes?" Rahkesh asked, ignoring the rest of it, he'd already guessed that. Namach snorted and smiled.

"Of course. You're wasting your time in the beginner classes. Daray given how much you and Silas got done in your extra year I moved you and your cousin up as well. Three classes up, you'll be with the older students, and you'll find that they're a bit different." Namach paused, thinking over something and suddenly beginning to grin. "Yes, it's very different. Everyone who continues that long intends to get really good at bloodmagic, most of them are hoping for a mastery in it. But I think you can handle the competition." Namach said, smiling as if he was really looking forward to having them face off with the older students. Which he probably was. Namach turned to Daray.

"Now about your demon transformation, you will still be required to complete another animagus transformation, which is possible. There is precedent for this, combining your mind with another creature's body the way you did. Though you seem to have come out of it better than most, usually they lose all their former magical abilities. So when you are finished you should have two forms, which is not as unusual as most of the mortal world would have you believe." The last part was added to Rahkesh, who hadn't known that multiple forms were possible. "The headmistress has four animagus forms you know," Namach informed them, "though I believe she is the only creature of any species to ever accomplish that."

"How much is known about demons?' Daray asked, Namach thought about that for a few moments.

"Not a lot. The people of Atlantis knew a lot about them, but all the records were destroyed along with the city. I own a demon skeleton, a very rare artifact. That one was killed back when I was still one of the masters of Rome. We magical folk had our own version of gladiators, and the demon was brought in to fight them. The portal it was brought through self destructed after just one summoning. I still have my old studies of the dissection of that demon. But of its magic's I can tell you little. That demon was very young, younger than your form probably is. It seems that adult demons are very difficult to summon. And, unfortunately, the mortal wizards threw the demon to the gladiators before we got the chance to study it alive." Namach fell silent, thinking. "I do remember an event involving demons, shortly before the time of Merlin. A group of druids found a portal. They summoned a dozen young demons, sent them to kill the priests of a rival religious sect. The druids are all dead, but the arch druid was a vampire, and he may still be alive. I met him once or twice in those years; he was unusual because he was a vampire with only one eye. Auzric, yes, his name was Auzric I think. Perhaps you should have your family look into finding him." Namach said.

"Can I see your notes from the dissection?" Daray asked.

"Yes, and you should tell a few of the healers about his as well. But do not inform all of the staff. The vampires, the werewolves, I wouldn't be surprised if headmistress Nvara Aelfly already knows. Perhaps a few of the mortals as well. But be careful, the existence a vampire demon would cause great upset amongst our kind." Namach warned, Daray nodded. Rahkesh thought that the term "upset" was a little mild. More likely every vampire would want him dead, seeing him as a threat they couldn't match, or want him as a pawn in their battles. On the other hand the Ateres family would surely find it useful to be the vampire family with a demon on their side.

"So I'll have to start trying to figure out what magics demons have, and how to use them." Daray thought aloud, "Are there any professors who could help monitor that? Watch the flows of magic?"

"Of course. Once they find out what you are they'll be begging for the chance to study you." Daray snorted, "but there is an easier way to find out what you're new magics are like." Namach said as he walked over to Daray. Daray didn't resist as Namach gripped the back of his head, stretched his neck out, and bit into his throat.

Rahkesh gave up trying to entice Eli to come close enough to pet and watched curiously, he had never seen a vampire feed on another vampire before. And with his growing telepathic abilities he could sense that Daray's telepathy had shut down completely, allowing Namach free range of his mind and magics. The ancient took his time, searching Daray's blood for information on what his demon side was capable of. Finally he stepped back, the punctures healing instantly and went to sit down across the coffee table from them, looking very thoughtful. Daray stayed leaning against the couch, eyes closed, looking much paler than usual.

"Fascinating." Namach muttered, "have you tried breathing fire in your demon form?" Daray blinked hard, and shook his head, looking dizzy, his eyes a little glazed.

"He hasn't tried any magics in that form." Rahkesh answered for his friend.

"Unless I am very much mistaken he should be capable of any and all magics a regular demon is capable of. Except for demonic telepathy." Namach said. Daray finally straightened and rejoined the conversation.

"But would my bloodmagics work on my demon form?"

"No. They don't. I sensed no bloodmagic connection between forms. Usually someone who has bloodmagic rituals keeps those magics when they do an animagus transformation, but this was not originally an animagus form, and the magic is different. However I do believe that, if you can figure out what blades to use, you might be able to begin bloodmagic rituals on your demon form."

"How nice." Daray purred, looking delighted.

"But you should wait until you're sure that your demon form is indeed an adult form. At the moment it still has a little bit of physical growing to do, and a lot of growing magically. Demons finished their physical aging several years before their magic reaches it final form. Attempting bloodmagic before that would likely be disastrous." Namach warned him. "Am I correct is assuming that the transformation between demon and human is very difficult?"

"Yes it is, both ways. It's only several hours after the transformation that I feel that I am completely in that form." Daray admitted.

"That will become easier with time and practice. I would guess that your body has difficulty growing an extra set of limbs." Namach said with a smile. Then his look turned grim. "While I did not sense any crossover from your bloodmagic I did sense other things that now apply to both forms. One of which is your susceptibility to sunlight. Your bloodmagic makes it possible for you to endure up to six or seven days of direct light, then it becomes difficult. But the bloodmagic does not crossover, and your vampiric allergy to sunlight does. I would guess that exposing your demon form to more than two days of direct sunlight would cause all the illness and weakness normally associated with overexposure to sun in a regular magical vampire.

"It is also true that the demon body is ill-suited to cold, and from an examination of their eyes I would believe that they are not capable of seeing all the color ranges, though their vision adjusts itself for distance naturally. You will not have noticed but your ability to see color has been partially removed. You can still see color, but not as you did before the merging.

"There are reports, in the records, that demons are also allergic to certain substances, though unfortunately exactly what those substances are is lost. I do sense several transferred allergies form your demon to vampire form. None of them are likely to be life-threatening they are there. But unfortunately I can't tell what they are."

Daray took this news well enough, he seemed to find it an agreeable trade. Though there wasn't any point to making a fuss, since there probably wasn't anything to be done about it.

"Thank you for your help." Rahkesh said, Namach just nodded then grinned at them.

"Don't thank me yet, I have every intention of finding out exactly what these new abilities or disabilities of yours are. By the time I and the other professors are done with you you'll hate our guts." The old vampire laughed, "The tests the potions masters are going to make you go through!" He laughed again at the forlorn looks the two shared. "Oh cheer up boys, it will be interesting."

"Easy for you to say, you're not a lab rat." Daray growled. Namach just laughed more. The two rose to leave, carefully side steeping Eli. The frill-neck escorted them to the door, making sure that they were out of its territory.

"Oh and Daray," Namach called to them when they reached the door. They both turned, Namach was not laughing now, instead he fixed Daray with a cold look, "Saul's life is mine." Daray nodded, bowed and walked out, Rahkesh patted Eli on the head and followed, barely avoiding the beast's lashing tail.

"You realize, don't you, that we won't be able to keep the concealing spells up forever." Daray said as they walked back to their rooms.

"Yeah." Rahkesh answered. "Your fellow vampires are going to throw the collective hissy fit of the millennia when they sense that something has happened to you to increase your potential, and current, power."

"Oh, I am looking forward to that." Daray smirked, "a year Rahkesh, maybe a year and half, and I'll have every vampire student in the school under my command."

"I'll believe it when I see it, and I won't. Because by that time _I'll_ be the one they're more frightened of." Rahkesh growled, meaning every word of it. "And I am also looking forward to our fellow student's reactions."

"Once you take the spells off every vampire in the school is going to sense how your blood has changed." Daray warned, "and there's a good chance that they'll do everything possible to get your blood." Rahkesh grinned wolfishly.

"Bring it. I've just ordered this brand new type of tasers and –" He was cut off as Daray started to howl with laughter. "Nasty scaly demon." Rahkesh complained, "and no comments about sadism." Daray just laughed harder.

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Ta-da! Did you like? I hope the vampire politics discussion didn't bore anyone. I was going to put that in when Rahkesh first arrived at Akren, but I thought it should wait until he'd been around enough vampires to have some first hand experience with the species. Agree?

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Please review! All comments are welcome.

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Rahkesh's classes start again soon, and maybe I'll off Saul. Expect the next chapter in a week or so, maybe longer. Any information about the next chapter or long delays in posting will be on my page.

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	21. Chapter 21

Disclaimer: all magical/mythical animals/creatures/people named in this story were gathered from years of scouring the internet for information. There is a list of websites (or soon will be) on my page that I have/might take information from to use in my story at some point. I only take a few ideas form these because I find such legends interesting, most of what is in here I made up myself, using only the names, basic description, and sometimes the origins of the creatures/beings found on these websites.

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Thank you everyone who reviewed, I loved reading your reviews! Please review again!

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Chapter 21

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" I'm glad the owl reached you so quickly. Tea?"

"Yes please. Ah is that Black verbena? You have excellent taste in teas Mr. Fleming."

"Thank you, I find that most people are completely ignorant of the health benefit a daily dose of black verbena can give. I must admit I am surprised someone your age would know of it."

"My parents preferred the black verbena to anything else, and they always told me to care for my health when I was young." Rahkesh explained, keeping the lie simple.

"Very good of them. Better to build up a strong supply of healing magic before old age hits. Drink it daily for a decade when young and you might expand your lifetime by fifty years." Mr. Fleming said. Rahkesh nodded. Though his intention in building up a massive supply of healing magic had nothing to do with his life span. And everything to do with surviving the magical backlash that he could expect to encounter when destroying a Horcrux.

"I must say I am amazed at how fast the Yeck fur has been selling."

"Indeed, all these years there has been little demand for it."

"Tricky stuff, Yeck fur. Well, someone must have a massive research project going on. I just hope the interest continues, eh?"

Mr. Fleming chuckled and raised his tea cup in a toast. "Amen to that. Last time the man came in he bought all of the last shipment. Creepy fellow, all black robes and the greasiest hair I've ever laid eyes on. Looked like hadn't seen the sun in decades. You know it is possible to spend too much time in a lab."

Rahkesh nodded his agreement while turning that over. Severus Snape – if it was him, and it certainly sounded like the man – was buying massive amounts of Yeck fur. What on earth could he be doing with all of it? If Mr. Fleming was to believed, and Rahkesh trusted the old potions dealer, then Snape had bought enough of the stuff to fill a small truck. Not that Rahkesh was complaining, he was making quite a profit on it. But what would Snape, or more likely Voldemort, want with Yeck fur?

Rahkesh's own knowledge of potions was fairly limited, despite his extra of training in the Room of Requirement and with the Chachapoyaro. And in neither case had he used any Yeck fur. The person to ask of course would be the head potions master at Akren. Professor Strawlime. Rahkesh was rather frightened of the man, but if anyone would know what good Yeck fur was, he would. But that teacher was "out of town" for the next month. "Out of town" being the excuse given when the potions master went to track down rapists, murderers, or drug dealers to test his potions on. The man was as much psychopath as he was potions genius. With no regard for the horrible pain his experiments caused his muggle victims, though the muggles in question surely deserved everything they got. But no one had ever brought charges against him. Professor Strawlime had been correct when he said that no one minded a few child rapists being melted or dissolved by experimental potions gone wrong.

Rahkesh knew that Strawlime, despite his cruelty, was a genius and a very good teacher. Much better than Snape had ever been. Under his teaching Rahkesh had made considerable progress, making up for the years of learning nothing in Snape's lab. Strawlime was also probably more knowledgeable in potions than even Snape, and if anyone would know all the uses of Yeck fur, he would.

Rahkesh left Mr. Fleming's potion ingredients shop and apparated to just outside the Ottawa branch of Gringotts. There he deposited most of the gems and gold he had brought back from his time with the Chachapoyaro. He then went into Harry Potter's vault (changing his appearance) left several of the living plants and animals, which would be too much trouble to keep at Akren, into the out of time cages. The then apparated again, this time to the trailhead that led into Akren. Silas was already there waiting with their two hell's Steeds, the massive fire horses were stamping and whistling impatiently.

"All right, all right, we're going, demanding equine." Rahkesh muttered the big black stallion he preferred. The creature snorted and took off up the trail at the slightest touch of his heels. Rahkesh let him go, stretching out into a run for the journey back.

Students were permitted to come and go from the valley whenever they wished, though the teachers did keep of record of who left and when. If you went away for too long without an explanation and missed classes you were likely to find alumni or current staff at your door. Which was why running away didn't work. Someone had tried it once, several years before. Not able to take the ruthless competition one male mortal human had tried to flee, going all the way to another continent. The alumni had tracked him down and killed him within three weeks. A quick clean execution of him and every single person he had spoken to in those three weeks. It was this incident that had caused the non/altered-human students to turn on the mortal human students. It would likely be a generation before the stain of that failure was forgotten. Which really ticked Rahkesh off, just because one human couldn't handle it didn't mean they _all_ couldn't.

"Werewolves are splitting up again, there're two packs forming." Rianae said as she greeted them at the stables. She was clipping the tips of a hippogriffs tail hairs while Ally was trying to convince one of the fire horses to give up some of its saliva. The two girls had drawn the short straws and gotten the task of gathering the potions ingredients for their next class.

"Two packs? There can't be more than twenty-three or twenty-four werewolf students in the school, and that's including the older students here doing research with the teachers. How can they possibly be forming two whole packs?" Rahkesh asked incredulously. Didn't werewolf packs usually contain twenty to thirty or so werewolves each? Rianae shrugged.

"No clue, but it'll be dark in a few hours and it's the full moon. There'll be dominance fights tonight, and not all of them will be coming back tomorrow." She warned. Ally shrugged, not particularly caring either way. She claimed that what the other species did amongst themselves didn't matter so long as it didn't get her involved. This meant that Ally was probably a lot wiser than he was. Rahkesh thought about that, the werewolves would leave the valley to battle, and dominance fights were occasionally fatal. With the type of werewolves that ended up at Akren he would not be surprised if they were almost always fatal. This was probably the aspect of werewolf life that had driven Remus to keep away from others of his kind. He was probably frightened of the whole pack structure.

Silas and Ally left for the school, leaving Rahkesh and Rianae to get the fire horses settled for the night.

"Are you going?" Rahkesh asked. Rianae nodded and raised a questioning eyebrow. "Yeah I'll come." Rahkesh answered, he had never seen a werewolf battle. It would be educational.

"Daray is coming too, and I think that fae, Justin, is as well. Possibly a few others." Rianae said, "We'll be leaving just after moonrise."

XXX

The sound of the young man's breathing was harsh in the still silent forest. His gasps and pants as he fled sounded far too noisy. He tripped, yelping as his kneecap hit a rock hard, and rolled to his feet to stumble on.

It was cold out, and the trail obscured by freshly fallen snow. He stumbled and hissed in pain a tree branch struck him across the face. He didn't know where he was going, had lost the trail an hour before. Now he fled as quickly as he could, trying to keep a straight line, desperate to get away. Away to where to didn't matter, just away from the ones hunting him.

Hic clothes were tattered and bloody, and his face and body bore the strain and shaking signs that told of recent exposure to the cruciatus curse. His wrists were rubbed raw where ropes of chains had cut into him, and the side his face bore a bruise in the shape of a boot print.

Behind him the howl of a werewolf echoed in the night. The full moon was up in the cloudless black sky. His already pale skin went paler with fear. They hadn't just sent people after him, they'd sent a werewolf. A beast that could track him down through the deep snow faster than he could run away.

His gasps grew harsher with fear, a slight whimper to them. His tears from the cold and from terror glinted down his cheeks. He didn't have his wand anymore, they had taken it the first time they'd captured him, before he'd escaped. He hadn't seen that wand in months. He had no way to defend himself. He could only run. And werewolves run much faster than humans.

He fell again, and rolled over to see the werewolf come, bounded through the deep snow. He turned and rose to flee again.

A shape dropped out of the night sky, cloaked in layers of dark robes. The wolf stopped so fast it nearly fell over. The newcomer grabbed the young man and pulled him close, throwing a knife at the wolf. The werewolf dodged, and then was hit in the face with the spell that followed. The strange being rose into the air, taking the young man with him, leaving the frustrated werewolf below, howling in rage, bleeding heavily from its ripped nose.

Shaking and gasping the young man turned to look at the one who had saved him. The being threw back her hood to show dark skin and hundreds of long dark braids. The young man went to say something, only to see the woman open her mouth, and a pair of glinting fangs.

The terrified young man lost it completely. This was just thing needed to send him over the edge. He screamed in terror, thrashing wildly in a complete panic. He shrieked and screamed and pushed against the vampire, trying to get away, the vampire ignored his struggles and held him still as she bit into his neck.

XXX

"Damn it, the bastard got past us." Mad Eye Moody's gravelly voice growled out from the glowing orb on Rahkesh's desk.

"He's got a sense of humor. And he doesn't mind us knowing it." Rahkesh responded. Before him on an enchanted sheet of woven hippocampus hair was an image of a yellow rubber duck. The duck that was blocking the camera he had installed at Grimmauld Place. He had used muggle cameras, hoping that a witch or wizard might not know what they were. Someone had entered the house, placing a yellow rubber duck in front of the camera so they couldn't see his or her face. Very amusing.

"A god damned duck!" Moody snarled. "Sure sounds like Black humor to me." Rahkesh had to agree, if Sirius had had to choose something to put in front of the camera he might well have used a bath toy.

"You never met Regulus?"

"What?" Moody stopped his tirade about muggle cameras. Rahkesh repeated the question.

"Oh yeah I met him once or twice. Kinda quiet. Smart. Sly, always watching everyone, knew a hell of a lot more than he let on. Didn't much like anyone really. Well maybe not. He and Snape got along pretty well." Moody said.

"AAAHHHH!" The sudden female scream of terror from Moody's end of the connection startled Rahkesh. "OH MY GOD!" Rahkesh waited, listening, and wondering what on earth was going on. "IT'S DEAD IT'S DEAD IT'S DEAD!"

"Moody what the hell is going on?" Rahkesh finally asked. It was a moment before Moody answered.

"Umbridge. I'm talking to you from Shacklebolt's office. Don't worry it's secure. But they just brought Umbridge back. She keeps going after the centaurs, this is the third time they've had to fetch her back. Damn woman is completely insane."

"KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT! IT'S TRYING TO EAT ME! KILL IT!" Okay, so maybe it wasn't dead then.

"What?" Rahkesh asked, trying hard not to laugh. Suddenly the sounds of many people laughing filled the air, then the sound of a door shutting, the noise dimmed.

"Sorry 'bout that." Shacklebolt's voice came over the link. "It's a hinkypunk someone sent in the mail as a joke." Moody began to sputter audibly and Rahkesh finally started laughing as Umbridge's wails went on and on. "That you Harry?" Shacklebolt asked.

"Yeah it's me. Sorry about the uproar, I couldn't resist." He admitted. There was a second's pause from the other end.

"You sent the hinkypunk to Umbridge's mail box?" Shacklebolt asked.

HEEELLLPPP! SOMEBODY HELP ME! Umbridge certainly had a voice on her. Rahkesh had sharpened the hinkypunk's teeth before sending it along. And used a memory spell to give it an inclination to go for the feet and lower legs.

"Well a certain pair of twins sent it to me as a Christmas present, and I couldn't very well keep it. And it kept trying to eat me. There's something mentally wrong with it." Rahkesh said, trying to justify it. The Weasely twins had captured it after it had been found by a muggle. The memory charm had missed the muggle and hit the hinkypunk instead. Apparently hinkypunks and memory charms don't mix. Shacklebolt and Moody were laughing again.

"I let him on your theory about Gimmauld Place; we needed someone in the Ministry to keep an ear open in case someone thought they should investigate the Black house." Moody told him.

"That's fine. Listen have you handled the rubber ducky any?"

"What?"

"Did you attempt to retrieve it from the house?"

"No."

"Good."

"Why?" Moody asked.

"I'll get it. And I'm going to fingerprint it. I bet whoever left it didn't think to wear gloves. If I can get fingerprints from that maybe I can figure out who it is." Rahkesh explained. He'd have to look into how fingerprinting was done by muggles. If he could prove that Regulus was actually alive then his theory of Sirius brother having gotten the Horcrux held a lot more credit.

"Fingerprinting, very clever." Shacklebolt said approvingly. "I've been trying to get the Ministry to use that, but the purebloods won't have it. Muggle technology and all."

"Fools." Rahkesh said in reply. "I'll go to the house, and no I don't need backup and no neither of you should be there." He answered before they could ask. "I'll be fine."

"Very well. Do you want pictures of this?" Moody asked, meaning of course Umbridge.

"Yes please. The Daily Prophet would probably like them too." Rahkesh said, and heard two sets of diabolical laughter before the link was cut.

He rose and walked out onto his balcony. He had conjured glass around it, and turned it into a greenhouse. In hereh is Animus bacca plant and Dyalnos (blood tree) were growing well. Rahkesh sat down and slowly drew blood from his arm with a spell. Part of it he put into a massive watering can, the rest he poured into the massive pot of soil the small tree was growing in. The watering can was what was used when he wasn't here; it had nearly been emptied over the break and needed to be refilled.

A Dyalnos tree, the rarest tree in the world, when raised on only blood, became magically attached to its blood donor. Rahkesh had every intention of raising it for many decades, the more years it spent living on his blood the stronger the attachment and power would be. Since the tree stored the magic in his blood in its wood many decades of blood would make it highly magically charged. The perfect wood to make a wand or staff from. Usable only by him. Priceless. And the seeds were each worth thousands of galleons.

XXX

That evening Rahkesh waited in the stables, but no one came. The werewolves had all left but there was no sign of the others. Getting annoyed he went inside and headed down to the sparring room, knowing that it was the right time of day to find Daray and Rianae there.

Rahkesh stepped into the sparring room and was immediately confronted with a crowd of nearly thirty students, all of them watching standing silently. Guessing by the disproportionate number of vampires in the crowd that some vampire duel must be going on he slipped through the crowd over to where he could see Nuri lying on the floor.

There was something odd going on, as he moved Rahkesh could feel, with his mind, waves of anger wafting through the magical currents that wrapped around the students. There was an awful lot of anger building here. And it seemed to be emanating from the fae students. Pushing through the crowd he saw the combatants and rolled his eyes. Daray and another vampire, maybe two years older. And Daray was winning.

They were fighting vampire-style: no weapons. Telekinesis and brute strength, mixed with telepathy. And while the addition of the demon's presence had given Daray some difficulty in using his telekinesis (demons had no such power naturally and it was taking a long time adjust) he was benefiting from the additional strength, physical and telepathic.

Both of them were fairly well ripped apart. Vampire telekinesis could create a lot of damage. And while the wounds had healed the ripped clothing and bloodstains on them and the floor gave evidence to the injuries both had sustained during the battle. The unknown vampire was also currently missing an eye, though that would regrow in time. The front and back of Daray's shirt were dripping blood everywhere and both of them bore burns and scorch marks from forcing the other's skin to burn (one of the more common forms of battle telekinesis). Rahkesh 'watched' with his mind. Noticing that the telepathic battle was much more intense than the physical one, with both vampire' minds locked together trying to use telepathy to overpower the other physically.

Daray flipped the other vampire and pounced, slamming him into the floor. Realizing that this might take a while Rahkesh sat down on one of the benches that ran along the walls and watched with interest as Daray broke both of the other vampire's arms to go with his broken legs. The sound of his snapping bones was unnaturally loud in the silent room. Crouched over the body of the other vampire Daray slid a hand under his neck and lifted, exposing his opponent's throat fully. The defeated vampire lay still and didn't struggle as Daray bit into his neck and began to drink his blood.

Rahkesh waited patiently until he judged that his friend was almost finished, then he began to clap, slowly. Daray could certainly hear him, but he ignored Rahkesh and took his time, finally removing his fangs from the other vampire's neck and raising his head a little to look at Rahkesh and the rest of the audience the battling vampires had drawn. And growled softly, an almost inaudible rumble. His eyes were nearly glowing, he had cleaned his fangs so that they showed glaringly white, and a few drops of blood dripped from his lower lip. Rahkesh, who knew Daray to be a very neat feeder, knew that this was entirely for show. But most of the people in the room would not know that the glowing eyes, snarl, dripping blood, and white fangs were just for display. And that was the point; most people wouldn't know it for aggressive posturing. But Rahkesh could tell the difference. When a vampire drank their fangs got covered in blood, Daray had licked his fangs clean before facing the crowd, so that the bright white of the fang teeth showed.

The bite mark faded from the other vampire's neck, but he stayed still, not even breathing, not wanting to draw Daray's attention again. Daray looked down at the exposed throat, and dropped him, ignoring the thud the other vampire's head made when he hit the floor. Daray rose and walked over to his friends, cleaning and repairing his tattered clothes wandlessly, just to prove that he could, more showing off. Vampires were so concerned with appearance, Rahkesh held back a chuckle.

Daray's eyes were still glowing, just a little bit, and he was still growling softly, Rahkesh abruptly realized that the vampire was struggling to hold back the demon, trying not to transform. A quick glance at Silas confirmed this; Nuri was on his feet, his short fur standing on end, his whiskers out, ears back, looking ready to attack. The panther did _not_ like demons.

"Hang on until we're out of here." Rakesh hissed softly as he tossed Daray his weapons and cloak and sent Silas a glance telling him to get between Daray and the other students. Silas moved around to block everyone from view. Rahkesh had his wand hidden up his sleeve and used it to conjure a tiny illusion around them, enough to keep anyone from taking note of Daray's eyes or his skin texture, which was starting to change as the transformation struggled to break free. Ally, who had been let in on what had happened, moved around behind Silas and cast a charm to block the other students from noticing anything amiss. Rahkesh opened the door wandlessly and they hurried out of the sparring room.

Outside Rahkesh looked over to Ally; she knew the hidden places in the school better than anyone. Ally picked out a hidden passageway that led to a long hollow shaft that ran up through the mountain. A place Rahkesh had never seen before, and based upon the dust, no one but Ally had been here in a long time. The night sky was visible a thousand feet above, a tiny speck of dark blue night.

Daray sighed in relief and transformed immediately. The change took less than a second and in an instant the massive dark demon was standing beside them. A moment later he was airborne, blocking the light and flying up the shaft to the top of the mountain.

Nuri glared up at the demon and spat and hissed until Silas knelt down and reached out telepathically to calm him. Then Nuri quieted, settling for growling continuously.

"That vampire challenge him?" Rahkesh asked.

"Yeah, Daray took off the scent concealing spells today, and I can tell you the vampires are freaking out." Ally said.

"This is the first time he's taken another vampire's blood since we returned. I don't think we even thought about the effect that would have on his demon form. That's going to be a problem if he can't learn to control it." Silas said, "He's coming back." Daray had folded his wings before he flew out of the mountain and was plummeting towards them. He opened his wings just in time to slow himself before he hit the floor, the massive claws raking great gouges into the rock.

"Easy Nuri." He purred as the big cat began to hiss again.

"You still coming with us to watch the werewolves?" Rahkesh asked.

"I don't suppose I could just go like this?" Daray asked, "never mind, it wasn't a question." He transformed again, back into vampire form.

"Next time you guys go on vacation, I'm coming too." Ally decided, "I missed all the fun." Silas laughed as the other two rolled their eyes.

"Are you two coming with us?" Rahkesh asked.

"Nah, no need to, it doesn't really matter does it?' Ally pointed out, watching the werewolves kill each other didn't really get any of them anywhere.

"You're going to have to practice drinking vampire blood and not transforming." Rahkesh told Daray as they went to the stables. Rianae and three fae met them there.

"You've put everyone in a right state." Rianae told Daray, "You should hear the rumors!"

"Are you really half werewolf?" One of the fae asked, and the others began snickering. "I'm Justin, these are Valerie and Yara." Of course, Rahkesh reminded himself, those were not their real names. Fae never told anyone who wasn't of their type of fae what their real name was. They had tow names, and one of them was used for most of the world, the other kept secret.

"Half werewolf? Who said that?" Daray asked.

"Some idiot mortal," Rahkesh began to growl audibly, "no offense or anything but your fellow mortals can be a bit stupid." Valerie quickly said, Rahkesh stopped growling and shrugged, and nodded. Some of them were.

"Either that or you did some piece of bloodmagic that went wrong." Yara offered, "can't wait till professor Namach hears that one. He'll be in a huff for weeks about how that isn't possible."

"Especially since it was Saul who said that." Valerie added.

"And there's some real genius going around saying you're part Naga, he says you smell scaly." Justin added dryly. Even Daray had to laugh at that. The Naga, part water serpent, part human, could not be turned into vampires and were entirely herbivorous.

"Why are the fae so angry?" Rahkesh asked, remembering the feeling of great rage he'd gotten in the sparring room. The three started to scowl immediately.

"Nothing to do with you. Some jackass vampire tried to kidnap some Laminas children. The city master of Vitoria interfered and is trying to stop our kin from killing him." Justin replied. Rahkesh blinked, and decided that he was probably right; it had nothing to do with him. There were twenty-two known types of fae, not including the elves, who would kill you for calling them fae anyway, and Rahkesh hadn't had the time to learn about all of them and identify what group all of his fellow students belonged to.

"I'm guessing that city master will not be around much longer." Daray said, implying that he at least would approve if the vampire was killed. Though some of the other vampire students might take offense. Tensions between the various species at Akren usually ran high, with every offense committed by any member of any species remembered and fought over.

"No he won't." Justin agreed. "And neither will the kidnapper, actually I think he's already dead." That was another thing, everyone kept up to date on what was happening between the magical species. The last time a war had broken out between two types of fae the students within the school had had to be physically and magically restrained from killing each other within the valley.

The six fire horses raced out of the stables (Ally and Silas had decided to remain behind). Their flaming manes and tails bright against the black sky and white snow. They used magic to levitate up to the entrance to the valley, since traveling even on horseback would take hours. Outside the valley there were no protective spells, and the werewolves would be gathering somewhere in the mountains to do battle. It was Yara who picked out the tracks and led them on a wild cross country ride through the snow to find the wolves.

They found them down in a valley, in a large clearing. Silenced and hidden by spells the six chose a rocky ledge high above. Leaving the horses (also concealed magically) a good distance away they approached on foot and lay down on their stomachs to look over the ledge.

Five sleek wolves and one scruffy gob-wolf sat in a silent circle, yellow eyes watching the two wolves in the middle. One of these was circling the other, looking for an opportunity to attack. The one in the center was pivoting around on his hind legs snapping and darting, also trying to find a time to attack.

Out of the dark another wolf appeared and joined the circle, soon followed by two more. Rahkesh pulled out his Ominoculars and searched, with only half the werewolf population of Akren present he was wondering where the others were.

Finally the circling wolf struck, only to be met jaw to jaw by the other one. The second wolf dropped low at the last moment and twisted away, sinking its fangs into the right hind leg of the first. The first wolf bit into the thigh of the second and both sprang apart, bleeding. But the first wolf didn't jump away so much as jump sideways, and therefore was in apposition to attack again quicker than the second. The second wolf was knocked off its feet and a second later a scream ripped through the air. The first wolf bounded away, leaving the second on the ground, one eye missing.

Now the watching wolves were on their feet, growling and yapping, eager for one of the two to fall. The wolf with the missing eye rolled upright, but was toppled over again as the first wolf struck, ramming their shoulders together and sending the injured one sprawling, then the first wolf went for the throat.

Moments later every wolf in the clearing was up and attacking, the group of the cliff top watch as the pack ripped the dying wolf to shreds. They could hear screaming and thrashing, below the snarls and growls of the pack, then silence. When the wolves drew back the defeated wolf had been ripped apart. There was little left but blood, guts, patches of fur, and snapped bones.

The first wolf, who had stood silently outside the circle as its new pack shredded the loser, licked at its bitten leg, then raised its head and began to howl. Minutes later the other nine wolves joined in. Then the new leader nudged some of the others towards the slope down into a small valley, and then leaped over them and raced off. In an instant the whole pack was on the move, howling and bounding through the snow, the remains of the dead wolf left strewn about the clearing.

Sitting up and settling Rahkesh decided that this was probably what Remus didn't like. Remus's wolf form was quite a bit larger than any of the werewolves he had seen that night, and he had little doubt that Remus could easily start his own pack, should he wish to. But Remus didn't seem the sort to approve of such wild wasteful killing.

"Shall we find the others?" Valerie asked after a moment.

"Yeah, in a minute." Rahkesh said. Getting up he jumped off the ledge, catching himself with a levitation spell. He went over to the tattered body and began to examine it, the sight of the ripped open intestines making him feel queasy. Daray and Yara joined him a second later while Rianae picked up her Ominoculars to keep watch for returning wolves. Justin and Valerie looked disgusted, and didn't seem to want to approach the body.

Rahkesh and Yara took samples of the dead wolf's fur, bones, bone marrow, fangs, tongue, remaining eye, and brain. Technically this was illegal and the pack could well take offense, but a bit of transfiguration and scent disguise (done by Yara) ensured that they would never know, not that they were likely to return. Daray magicked their footprints, smell, and magical signature away so that if the wolves did return they couldn't track them down. Then he collected a few liters of wolf blood, giving half to Rianae. They climbed back up to the ledge and went to the horses.

"The two packs will probably be avoiding each other. No alpha wolf will want to fight more than once in one night, so if there is any super-leader emerging they'll wait a month before another challenge." Justin said as they mounted the horses and went around the valley on the mountainside, looking for tracks.

"And they have to be back by dawn, so they can't have gone much farther, there'd be no way an injured wolf would make it back in time, and we have class tomorrow." Rahkesh added. "Wish Silas had come, Nuri could scent them out for us." He had left Sygra behind as well, the cold-blooded serpent didn't like the cold, and it was very cold at night in the mountains.

Though they searched for most of the remainder of the night they could not find any tracks, not a hint of the werewolves presence. They could hear their howls, but sound echoes in the mountains and they couldn't pinpoint the location.

Finally Rahkesh gave up and left the group to go for a ride, supposedly. In fact he went a harvested some more Yeck fur from the combs he had placed near the entrance to their caves. Like the combs used to collect rabbit fur these collected Yeck fur when the animals brushed past. And he came by about every three weeks to find the combs nearly full of it. There were a lot of Yecks here and the comb teeth were too small to hurt, and he had a lot of them set up. Either the Yecks hadn't noticed or they didn't care. Collecting the fur he returned to the others, who were still searching.

They searched fruitlessly for several more hours. Then, frustrated and tired, they returned to Akren an hour or so before dawn. There Rianae and Justin decided to wait to watch the werewolves come in and count how many were missing, while the others went to sleep.

XXX

The man rubbed at his batter nose, a new shiny scar showing after the healer moved his wand away. Behind them anther man with a flat nose and scaly snake-ish look paced the room.

"You imbecile! Can't you do anything right?" The tired werewolf touched his nose again and didn't answer. "It was a child! A half untrained, terrified, wandless, child! Crucio! Damn you _Wormtail_ would have done better!"

But the werewolf didn't hear the last insult. He had flopped to the floor, twitching, and after a second or two, he began to scream. The red slit eyes gleamed as Voldemort observed the werewolf. Finally he lifted the spell.

"He did not escape!" The man lying on the floor spoke immediately.

"What?"

"He was grabbed up by a hunting vampire!" Fenrir Greyback said quickly. Voldemort stared, then spun away, robes flying about him.

"A vampire. A vampire just swooped down and took him?"

"Yes. Master I –"

"Shut up." Voldemort snarled. "A vampire. Are they involved, no, they wouldn't be. Just a chance event? Or did they not want him bitten?" He wondered aloud, neither of his servants answered. Werewolves and vampires might not get along all that well but they were not really enemies, and they respected each other. They were very different, werewolves being mostly human, but the vampires appreciated their added strength and senses. And the taste of their blood.

"Master I have not offended any vampires recently." Fenrir said when Voldemort suddenly turned around, guessing what Voldemort would ask. Voldemort's eyes narrowed, then he turned and left the room, leaving the two behind breathing a sigh of relief. That could have been a lot worse.

XXX

With the yellow rubber duck in a plastic bag Rahkesh went through the house checking cameras. None of them had recorded anything, but only the first had been blocked. Grimmauld Place was dark and quiet. Too quiet. The house felt old and dark, magically dark, as if the intentions of those who had been there were cruel and twisted, which they had been. He didn't like it.

The electric blue pebble in his left hand began to turn orange; there was another living creature in the house. The obsidian pebble had been doused with a potion and magically charged to indicate human magical signatures. He wasn't alone.

Rahkesh knew that casting any spells would give away that he knew there was someone there. And he couldn't use the magic of the house to keep them in, since if it was Regulus the house would respond to him as well. Rahkesh went about as if he was looking for something, while setting a chair upright, cleaning some stuff left in the kitchen that was growing mold, banishing a pixie from behind the drapes, small things. While he did so he moved so that he could speak to Sygra, hidden in his sleeve, without being noticed.

_Sygra, do you smell anything living in this house?_

_The pixies, too many of them. Can we bring one or two back? The adults are too big but the pixies smell like young pixies might be good to eat._

_Very well. Anything else?_

_An animal, warm blooded, not so big as Nuri, but bigger than a house cat. It has an interesting scent, it smells very strongly, but I do not recognize it. It walks on four legs. _Sygra offered, Rahkesh thanked her and began trying to think of mammals in that size range. Only there were a lot of them. What sort of animagus creature would Regulus be? If, indeed, it was Regulus?

Finally an idea came to him, Rahkesh held out his wand and concentrated on summoning Regulus, if and only if, he was in fact in the house. The summoning spell silently was something he had only just really mastered, and when he sent out the magic he felt the spell hit something.

Feeling an invisible searching spell impact and object or person was something Ally had taught him, in exchange for some occlumency lessons. You simply had to follow the magic as it went seeking its target. Doing this also strengthened the spell because you were driving it all the way, providing exactly the power it needed to do the task set to the magic.

There was a scuffling noise, Rahkesh eyes snapped open just in time feel the spell break and see a bushy black tail disappear out the door. He raced after it, seeing the creature vanish out the final door and around the side of the house seconds before he got there.

The night was silent, and Regulus was gone.

Rahkesh looked back into the house, and grinned, Regulus Black was alive, and Rahkesh knew what his animagus form was.

Regulus Black was a large black fox.

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Please check my page for preview of the next chapter.

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End of chapter. Please review. The next one might take a while; I have two major lab reports (twenty-five percent of my grade in two classes) due next week. I'm sure any college students (particularly other science majors) can sympathize. What the hell was I thinking taking three lab classes? (Rhetorical question)

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I'll give you three guesses as to who that young man nabbed by the vampire was, and the first two don't count.

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I've made a decision to continue this story after Voldemort gets killed. I have a lot of ideas for future plots and not all of them involve Voldemort. It'll be a while before Voldemort dies but after he does I think I'll continue Rahkesh/Harry's story. Any opinions?

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There is a list of websites about magical creatures/ mythical beings on my page if anyone wants to take a look.

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	22. Chapter 22

Many thanks to everyone who reviewed, you made my day.

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Chapter 22

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"MARLUCK!"

Everyone in Akren was awakened shortly before dawn by the roar that shook the school. Doors smashed open and curious sleepy faces peered down the halls. People called question to each other across the hallways.

"MARLUCK!"

"What was that?" Silas asked, leaning out his door to look up and down their hall. Rahkesh, who's rooms were between Silas and Daray's, shrugged and turned to look at the other vampire. Daray shrugged back at him.

"Someone's angry at profesoor Marluck?" He suggested.

"MARLUCK YOU DERANGED BRAIN-DEAD HORSE'S ASS." The voice shouted again, now recognizable as Professor Namach, a very, very, angry Professor Namach, who was channeling the full force of the power accumulated over his three thousand plus years into his voice. "GET YOUR DISEASED FREAK OF A NEWT OUT OF HERE!"

"I think he's referring to Professor Marluck's two headed fire salamander." Ally said when their ears had stopped ringing. Up and down the halls of Akren students were dressing hurriedly and running down the halls to watch whatever was happening.

"Oooh. This could be fun." Silas said, coming out of his room again dressed. "Sorry Nuri, you'd better stay here." He added, pushing the panther back inside, Nuri whined in annoyance."You three coming?" Rahkesh, who was already dressed, shrugged and joined him, Ally and Daray joined them a few minutes later.

"WHAT IN ALL HELL'S WERE YOU THINKING?" This time Rahkesh recognized where the voice was coming from.

"He's at the corridor to the bloodmagic chambers." Rahkesh said, leading them down a shortcut.

"DO YOU HAVE A _SIGNLE VIABLE BRAIN CELL_? YOU WORTHLESS MORON!"

Rahkesh choked trying not to laugh as Namach's roars rolled down the corridor, the telepathic rage driving them making his head pound until he shut down all awareness outside his own mind. He could see the more telepathic students wincing and grimacing. The fae Justin, appearing beside him, looked murderous.

"Stupid vamps, can't remember to control their power. That fucking hurts." The fae growled. They reached the crowd and found a way through to where they could see. Behind them students were levitating themselves to look over the heads of those in front.

Professor Marluck's two-headed giant fire salamander, a creature nearly seven feet long noses to tail-tip, was crouched in front of Namach in the doorway to one of the bloodmagic chambers.

Professor Namach was standing right behind it, blocking the entranceway. The salamander was giving off bursts of fire from its two heads and flammable skin to keep Namach at bay. Namach looked angrier than Rahkesh had ever seen him. He had let go of his powers and air around him was shimmering with built up magic.

The crowd parted suddenly and Professor Marluck came running through. The tall silver-haired man took one look at the situation and sighed.

"What have told you about wandering around at night?" He asked the salamander, ignoring the outraged Namach.

"The pathetic mentally deficient newt was in one of the bloodmagic chambers." Namach hissed at Marluck, who winced. The salamander turned and breathed a jet of fire at him. Namach waved it aside effortlessly.

"He's not a newt." Marluck protested.

"I DON'T CARE IF HE'S THE GOD TAIMAT COME TO EARTH! YOUR SILLY LITTLE NEWT AND HIS FLAMING SNOT STAY OUT OF MY ROOMS!" Namach roared. Making everyone wonder who the god Taimat was and when he had existed. Probably not very recently.

"If you hadn't left the doors open – "

"If your slimy little pet-"

"Are you threatening him?"

"Damn right I am!" Namach snapped. The salamander threw another fireball at him, Namach returned it, times a hundred, engulfing the beast in blue flames, forcing Marluck to throw himself out of the way.

"NAMACH! You retarded shithead!" The irate weapons teacher snarled. The conversation from there quickly deteriorated into insults.

"Gutless spiv!" Namach shouted, drawing more raised eyebrows from the students, and other teachers. Who were now all wondering what a spiv was.

"Deluded whoreson!" Marluck's insult was probably wasted on someone Namach's age, Rahkesh thought. Since the vampire probably couldn't remember his mother anyway.

"Wart on pig's ass!"

"Ratty little scumbag!"

"You piece of criminal garbage!"

"Sleazebag!"

"Hopeless nong!" Once again the students traded quizzical looks at Namach's insult.

"Mangy maggot!"

"You imbecilic piece of offal!"

"Rancid jackass!"

"Stunned mullet!"

"Half-wit!"

"And what have you got for brains? Sponge cake?"

"Calling you stupid would be an insult to stupid people!"

"You are a pathetic scumbag! Your parents were scum and you're doing a most glorious job of following the tradition!" Apparently this last insult from Namach was a bit more than Marluck's salamander was willing to hear. The animal let out a sound between a whine and a roar and attacked Namach.

Suddenly Namach's pet giant frill-neck, Eli, appeared from a doorway and, without the slightest hesitation, launched himself at the fire-salamander.

"Aw crap." Marluck muttered before both he and Namach lunged, trying to drag the two animals apart. Both of them got a face-full of venom from Eli for the trouble, and burns from the salamander. Students scattered away as the two animals let out a discharge of magic massive enough to pick both teachers off the ground and fling them against a stone column.

Eli's tail flared, growing massive spikes, one of which he planted right through the foot of the salamander. The fire-salamander lashed out with claws and fangs and fire, Eli spat venom, curled his tail over his head in a most un-lizard-like fashion to stab at the salamander with the barbed tip, extended his frill to stop and collect the fire, and send it right back.

"Now look what you've done!" Marluck snarled. Namach turned, the air around him beginning to glow as he prepared to attack.

"ENOUGH!" The voice that came from behind the crowd stopped everyone, accompanied as it was by rush of such intense magic that Rahkesh began to feel light-headed. All other sound seemed to dim and fade away as the speaker continued.

"I do not find it amusing, Tristan, Steve, to be awakened before dawn by your squabbling." The crowd parted and the headmistress, Nvara Aelfly, walked into view.

Rahkesh had only seen the headmistress of Akren once, the day the new students had arrived. She looked much the same now as she had then, tall and thin with long grey hair going white done in two braids down her back. She was wearing a deerskin jacket with silver and blue beads designs and deerskin pants tucked into high boots. She also had several throwing stars and knives tucked into her belt and sheathes on her arms, and a pair of swords sheathed across her back. All the weaponry gave her the appearance of a walking armory.

"Students, please go back to your rooms, or to breakfast. You two," she continued, turning to her two errant staff members, "get those animals out of the hallway."

Despite the professors best efforts no one was able to even approach the two battling creatures, much less calm them. Namach stormed off to his rooms, Marluck went down to the gym to beat the stuffing out of a few punching bags, and for the first day of school Rahkesh's wandless magic, bloodmagic, and weapons classes ended up cancelled since that section of the school was considered too dangerous to go near. The headmistress ordered it closed off until the two animals had stopped. Throughout the day the ground shook and waves of magic sent people stumbling and falling to their knees in the hallways.

"Oh never mind," Professor Strawlime said after attempting to teach potions, only to find that the cauldrons couldn't stay steady with the magical backlash and shaking floor and ceiling. "Go do something useful with your day, and make sure any potions stored in your rooms are in strong containers and not on high shelves!"

"Of course professor Marluck _ought_ to be fired." Saul said as they left the room, leaving Strawlime to try to stabilize the rocking shelves of potions. "Talking back to vampire like that."

"Saul, if you had another brain, it'd be lonely." Rahkesh said, shoving the vampire aside as they passed. "Oh I hope Namach kills him soon." He muttered to Ally, "because if he doesn't I think I will. I really can't stand much more of this."

"In the auditorium, and tell me when so I can sell tickets." Ally replied. Drawing snickers from the entire rest of the class. Word that Namach had decided to kill Saul himself had spread, somehow, faster than a prairie fire after a drought. Though no one had mentioned it to Saul yet. "Though how is it possible for Namach to kill him in the valley?"

"He won't just kill him outright." Daray said as they gathered in Rahkesh's rooms for lunch. "There's not much point in doing that to a vampire you know you can kill. He'll drain Saul's blood, repeatedly, probably for several days, beforehand. It'll heighten Namach's power, though by such a small amount even he probably won't notice. And vampire blood tastes better than mortal blood. And it's so much fun to kill another vampire." He added with a sigh, "that's why so few of us survive for long, killing those weaker then yourself is so enjoyable that its almost addicting."

Daray was right. That very day Saul disappeared. Rumor had it Namach was keeping him in a cell in his rooms. But whatever had happened Saul wasn't seen for the next week.

It was Rahkesh who found him. He had gone down to examine one of the bloodmagic chambers, trying to choose which one was optimal for his next set of runes. The hallway had been repaired after Eli and Marluck's salamander had finished their battle, with no clear winner. Though of course each owner thought his pet had won. Personally Rahkesh sided with Namach. The holes in the walls had been made when Eli had rammed the two-headed fire salamander into them, with enough force to crack rock. Though the salamander appeared only bruised.

Rahkesh arrived at the bloodmagic chamber he wanted to examine, to find it in use. Interested to see who had ignored Namach's orders not to use the rooms today, he went around to the wall that was actually a window to look in.

There was a crumpled form lying in a heap on the floor, magic sparked over it, and the flesh appeared to be melting. Rahkesh grabbed the rope hanging from the wall and pulled, three hard tugs, overhead the bells rang three times. A series of booms and clangs loud enough to send birds up from feeding at the other end of the valley.

Even coming just from his rooms it would take a few seconds for Namach to arrive. Rahkesh opened the waiting room and ran inside. He made a half-circle cut on his hand, followed by two more interlocking half-circles. He pressed the cuts to the handprint on the wall, and the door opened.

It took him several minutes to undo the rings of bloodmagic, and Rahkesh realized belatedly that Namach was out of the valley today. That was why the bloodmagic corridor was shut down. He finished undoing the runes and race dot the side of the person lying on the ground.

It was Saul. And it wasn't magic sparking over his body; his body was actually actively decaying. Rahkesh watched in horrified disgust as the body before him decayed at a rate impossible without magic.

Saul was already dead. And the magic was ripping him apart through accelerated decay, and it was doing the same thing to his soul it was to his body. By the time it was done Saul wouldn't only be dead, his soul would no longer exist. But before all the skin had vanished Rahkesh saw the marks on Saul's neck. Fang marks, more precisely, vampire fang marks. Then he realized what Namach had done to get around the magics that prevented any of the people in the valley from killing each other. Saul had been alive, barely, when Namach had left him that morning in the middle of the ring of improperly laid bloodmagic runes. Namach had drained him first, as Daray predicted, then left him here. Namach knew more about bloodmagic than anyone. He knew exactly what mistake would produce this decaying result. The physical evidence would be gone from Saul's neck, and no necromancer alive can call up a soul that doesn't exist. All evidence was gone.

People were running down the corridor. Rahkesh began casting healing spells, knowing they wouldn't work. A half-dozen students arrived, all of the older students studying bloodmagic. Then several teachers.

"You sounded the alarm?" One of the teachers Rahkesh didn't know asked.

"Yes, I was coming down to figure out which room I would need for my ritual next week, and found him in here." Rahkesh answered finally sitting back. "What's happening to him?" he asked, as though he didn't know.

"His soul and body are both decaying," the professor answered. "Come away Rahkesh, he's gone, and we need to clean the room before the magics get completely out of control."

Rahkesh left the room with them, the professor, who he now recognized as Xanthius, the soul magic professor, and the only elf in Akren, closed the doors and washed the room clean of the last of Saul's remains and blood. Rahkesh looked around to find most of the school present – everyone knew what the bells meant.

"I will inform Namach when he returns, you might want to be there as well." Xanthius told him. Being an elf Xanthius was almost seven feet tall with silk-like white hair and unnerving purple and green eyes, which Rahkesh didn't bother to meet when he nodded his agreement. Knowing that if he did the professor would be able to read his mind and tell that he knew exactly what had really happened to Saul.

"What a lovely way to start the second week of school." Daray said approvingly once the professors had left. There were chuckles from the remaining students. Rahkesh didn't comment, wondering why Namach had decided to get rid of Saul's soul as well as his life. What possible use could that have served?

When Namach had left that morning he had posted a note on his door saying he'd be back at seven p.m., Rahkesh arrived five minutes after that to find professor Xanthius already there, chatting with Namach. Eli was sitting at the elf professor's feet, purring like a cat. Apparently the irritable lizard didn't hate everyone. Though he opened his frill and hissed when Rahkesh walked in.

"Still the rate at which the soul deteriorated matched the body exactly." Professor Xanthius was saying, neither of them having seen Rahkesh. "If those specific runes can achieve such an effect…"

"But there is also the effect that that particular chamber might have had, each one is different." Namach said. Eli hissed loudly and they both turned. Rahkesh walked in and had to immediately sidestep a spiked tail lashing out at him.

"Always hostile eh?" He asked the enormous reptile, Eli hissed again.

"Xanthius tells me that you could tell that Saul's soul was decaying." Namach said. Rahkesh blinked, how had the professor known that?

"I'm an elf." Professor Xanthius said simply by way of reply to Rahkesh's unspoken thought. Rahkesh decided it didn't really matter if the professor could read his mind or not, and shrugged.

"Yes I could tell." He agreed.

"How?" Namach asked.

"No clue." Rahkesh replied. "I'm guessing that I shouldn't have been able to tell?"

"No, a mortal with no training in soul magic or necromancy should not have been able to tell." Professor Xanthius replied, "which is why I asked you to come here tonight. Professor Namach tells me you recently survived a massive ingestion of dragon blood."

"Yes I did." Rahkesh replied, wondering where this was leading. As they spoke he was sealing his mind again, putting layer upon layer of thought and memory between his two mind reading professors and things he didn't want them to know. He finally shut down his telepathic presence entirely and began closing off all thought, creating a shield that would hopefully keep even professor Xanthius out.

"I had hoped you were joking." Professor Xanthius muttered to Namach. "Tell me, how long have you been training yourself at mind magics?"

"Um, about three years?" Rahkesh guessed, not including his time with Snape, though that had taught him a few things.

"Before your time travel how good was your telepathy and occlumency?"

"Not very good. I could sense things, and I could shield my mind, but only minimally."

"Two years then." Xanthius said, "and just now you managed to shut your mind off so far that even I would have trouble reading it without eye contact. How did you do that?"

"I built a shield, guided by your basic magical signature." Rahkesh replied.

"In fifteen seconds? Having never tried to test a creature's basic magical signature before? Without the actual spell for sensing a magical signature?" Xanthius asked incredulously.

"Your basic telepathic magical signature." Rahkesh clarified. Then he thought it over. "I wasn't really thinking about what I was doing, but that seemed like it would work." The two professors traded unreadable looks.

"Why were you in the bloodmagic corridor this morning?" Namach asked finally.

"I was hoping to figure out which chamber would be best for my next ritual." Rahkesh said.

"That early in the morning? Everyone was at breakfast."

"I thought that that would be a good time."

"Why?" Xanthius asked. Rahkesh shrugged, not really knowing what they were looking for.

"It seemed like a good time to go there." He said finally. He was surprised when both professors nodded and traded grins.

"Rahkesh, we're going to run some experiments to see if you are developing the ability to detect other people's souls and bloodmagic. Naturally or as a result of the dragon's blood. Before I left I placed wards on that hallway so that even Xanthius here wouldn't sense anything, yet you probably did. I don't believe in coincidences and your coming to the right chamber at that time was too unusual to possibly be chance." Namach told him. "And I'm going to call in a vampire friend of mine. She knows a lot about dragons, I want you to tell her everything you can remember about the dragon that gave you that blood."

"Why?" Rahkesh asked.

"Different types of dragons exhibit different powers when around humans. Different dragons have different telepathic abilities. It is possible that you are only now beginning to show some of the changes the blood caused, after it had had time to fully join with your magic." Namach explained. Rahkesh nodded slowly, wondering just what he'd gotten himself into.

XXXX

_You filthy flying mouse, try that again and I'll add bat to my menu._ Rahkesh looked over his shoulder to find Sygra coiled on top of the backrest of the couch, hissing at Daray's magical vampire bat. Satan had apparently challenged her for the back of the couch and Sygra, coiled in the last pool of sunlight, wasn't keen on moving aside.

The bat was unhappy about the loss of his usual perch, and not about to back down. That bat and his owner, they had some sort of obsession with the couch. Perhaps he should suggest a psychiatric evaluation, Rahkesh thought.

_Do you even know what a menu is_? Rahkesh asked.

_No._ Sygra muttered, swaying her head from side to side to follow the bat's flittering movements across the room. Rahkesh chuckled, his pet was picking up a wide vocabulary, even if she hadn't the faintest clue what half the words meant. And even if he told her it would have little meaning to a snake. Though at least this time she'd used her new word in the correct context.

_I wouldn't eat him, he might taste bad._ Rahkesh warned, _I could just transfigure him into a mouse for you._

_Please. Where are you going?_

_Gathering Yeck fur, then I have a meeting with some teachers._

_Can I come with you to the Yeck caves? I'm bored._

_Very well._ Rahkesh said, casting a warming charm on the air around the snake. Sygra had just shed another skin, and she was always hyper active for a few days after that, even if it was midwinter.

Mr. Fleming had kept in contact with Rahkesh over the continued amazing rate at which people were buying the Yeck fur. Snape had made two appearances in three weeks to gather more of it, and now another person, presumably a death eater, was also stopping by. It interested Rahkesh that there would be two death eaters buying it, when one of them (according to Mr. Fleming) didn't know shit about potions ingredients. Was Voldemort trying to be discrete, or was the unknown man working alone? Was he even a death eater?

Rahkesh used a levitation spell to get to the valley entrance, he really needed to learn how to make portkeys for that, then he made sure Sygra was secure about his neck. The serpent was very frightened of falling off, but she wanted to see the Yecks. He nudged the flaming horse into a run and headed through the tunnel out of the valley.

Rahkesh was not pleased to have Snape buying his yeck fur, he didn't like helping Voldemort or Snape in any way. However is sales of yeck fur had also put him in a position to possibly harm both of them. He had had a long talk with professor Strawlime and the old potions brewer had given him a list of ingredients that reacted violently to yeck fur. Three of them were clear-drying substances that were fairly easy to make. Rahkesh had made all three potions with the hopes of covering the yeck fur in them. Add heat in a cauldron and they would create an explosion.

It was a good plan but the possibility of retaliation against Mr. Fleming worried him. So Rahkesh found another potions ingredients dealer. A man no one would miss, Mr. Dowchin in Knockturn Alley. A man arrested for beating his wife to death who had gotten off because everyone involved with the case were death eaters and Mr. Dowchin had been a supplier to Voldemort before Snape was recruited. Rahkesh had contacted him and started selling him small amounts of yeck fur. He had then hired one of the Knockturn whores to watch the potions shop and find out who was buying the yeck fur. It hadn't taken long for Snape to discover the source of yeck fur closer to home. He'd bought four of the small batches of yeck fur from Mr. Dowhcin in two weeks. Rahkesh already had the other three potions, now all he needed was the yeck fur.

It was getting dark out and the setting sun was turning the snow gold and red. The fire horse knew the way to the yeck caves by heart now and Rahkesh let the horse get them there while he watched a pair of phoenixes gliding around some mountains, probably hunting. If he had the time it would be nice to map out the locations of all the magical creatures in the valley.

The yecks, it turned out, had scheduled their breeding season so that all the young were born in midwinter. Why exactly they did that was a mystery, but with new young the adult were hyper alert. They stood guard in shifts around their young, who resembled furry snowballs. With the yecks so on edge there was no way he'd be able to approach and retrieve the fur gathered in the combs without disturbing them. The yecks were also sensitive to magic, so he couldn't summon it either. He didn't want to upset them, the yecks knew he came by every week or so and in the past had ignored him, but with their young around he'd probably be considered a threat. The fur, and the potions, would have to wait. And he'd have to send letters to Mr. Fleming and Mr. Dowhcin that they would have to wait for the next package. Hopefully the yecks would relax quickly and he'd be able to sneak in.

_Are the little ones tasty? _Sygra asked, peering out from the collar of his coat.

_I don't know. Probably not, all that fur. _

_Hm, to bad._

_You can't be hungry already, you just ate two moles last week. _

_Next time I eat. _The snake replied. Sygra only ate once every three to four weeks, but she had food on the brain.

_Probably not a good idea, the adults may look harmless but they're not. _

_I'm more dangerous than they are. _Rahkesh didn't reply to that. The little yecks were kinda cute, like fluffy white kittens.

_Do you hear something_? Sygra asked. Rahkesh listened, he could hear only the wind. But when Sygra said hear she often meant feel, since she could feel certain vibrations in the ground he couldn't.

_No._

_I do. I sense magic, strange magic. That way._ Sygra pointed her nose to the east. Rahkesh squinted, trying to see anything unusual. There was just the forest of snow covered trees and white ground. Then he sensed something too. A vibration of sorts, along the edge of his senses, a strange tingly feeling. He hadn't felt magic like this before, it felt sour, but not unpleasantly.

_Shall we go?_ He asked.

_Yes. _Sygra said at once. Rahkesh went back to the fire horse and they rode east. There was no trail but they were soon down in the valley where the earth was flatter and more stable than the steep slopes. The fire horse seemed to have no difficulty finding footing. And a lot of wind and sun recently had kept the snow level low enough that the going wasn't difficult. The horse chose a trail made by elk or moose and followed it; the already broken snow was easier to travel through.

They traveled out the far side of the valley through a thin gap between the mountainside and some cliffs. Sygra was scenting the wind and directing him with soft hisses. Rahkesh carefully reached out mentally, searching as well. There was someone ahead, but he couldn't pinpoint them.

It was luck that saved him, the horse stumbled in a pothole.

Thud. Rahkesh jerked aside and kicked the horse into a jump, knowing without having to look that the arrow had hit the tree beside him. The fire horse leaped, from standing still, away around a massive rock. Rahkesh twisted and brought the horse around, the horse wheeled, rearing, and landed. Rahkesh peered around the rock cautiously.

The second arrow missed his nose by inches. Rahkesh jerked back, but he'd had time to catch the angle it had come from. It had come from above. The archer was hidden on the mountainside in the valley.

Behind Rahkesh the valley's flat area ended in an abrupt slope, too steep to safely ride down. Going back into the valley wasn't an option. He couldn't head right; cliffs rose straight up nearly a hundred feet. To his left was the steep mountainside, too steep to ride up. Flying wasn't safe, he made too easy a target and flying was never safe here, too many predatory winged creatures. There had been reports of lyras, garudas, and stymphalians lately. In addition to the usual dragons, griffins, and rocs. And it was the new moon; it would not be too absurd for marauding gargoyles to be about.

Rahkesh dismounted and picked out a large pinecone. He transfigured it into a human shape and sat it on the horse. He then transfigured a cloak for it. In the dark it would do well enough. He asked the horse to remain still and began to climb the mountainside as silently as he could.

Rahkesh used levitation charms to get to the top of the ridge quickly and began to move along it a crouch, trying got keep from being too visible against the sky. Fortunately the aurora began to sparkle and waiver across the sky soon, twisting the shadows so it was hard to see shapes well.

_Three of them._ Sygra told him. _Left and down._ Rahkesh followed the directions, he finally spotted on man, crouched behind a rock. But he couldn't find the others. _Farther away, but they're coming closer._ Rahkesh dropped off a ledge and landed softly in the snow behind a tree. He moved forward, keeping just below the edge of the trees.

Whoever he was he had the largest crossbow Rahkesh had ever seen. This made sense since one of the former Akren headmasters had enchanted the mountains so that gunpowder wouldn't ignite. Apparently he hadn't believed that guns took enough effort to kill someone with.

Rahkesh lashed out, two knives thrown simultaneously, and a wandless invisible stunner.

The hunter was well trained. He turned faster than Rahkesh could see and caught one knife and knocked the other one away with the bow. He then batted the wandless spell away. Rahkesh felt a massive blast hit him, knocking him off his feet he allowed himself to fall, and rolled. Coming up he caught the knife thrown back at him and snapped out a bone breaking curse.

His opponent responded with a spell, invisible, sent form his wand. Rahkesh ducked just in time. Behind him the tree branch split cleanly off and fell.

Rahkesh whipped out his wand and, concentrating on invisible spells, cast a vomiting hex and choking curse, a heart splitting curse and a weakness hex.

The other man returned with several spells Rahkesh didn't know and a deafness curse, a blindness curse, a magic draining charm and a bone shattering spell. Followed by a spray of acid that Rahkesh had to conjured wind to fling away.

This fighter was good, really good. The spells were nasty, curses to rot the blood and disembowel him accompanied by knives and darts. Rahkesh fought back with equal curses and weapons, but as he ducked another poison dart and used a wandless spell to repel a vial full of exploding acid, which then melted a rock, he realized that he wasn't going to win this.

He heard the sound before he felt the spell, his arm bone snapping, a sharp crack against the otherwise silent air. The ripping curse caught his lower leg. Rahkesh snapped his teeth shut so hard he heard them crack as he tried not to scream. He could feel the tendons in his foot come apart. Desperate he tried one last thing. A summoning spell.

But he directed it at the man's braincells. Summoning his brain.

And agonized gasp reached his ears the same time the arrow impacted his thigh, hitting the knife sheath rather than his leg, but bruising nonetheless. Rahkesh poured everything he had into the summoning spell. There was a cracking sound and ripping sound, and then the brain splatter across the tree beside Rahkesh with a wet thud.

Rahkesh rolled away, the snow stained red around him, brains dripped from the tree branches. He pulled out two vial form a pouch on his belt and poured one across his foot, which had been half ripped off. The second part he drank, following it with a spell to his arm. Rahkesh leaned into the snow, gasping as quietly as possible, as the shredded skin and bone and tendon of his foot merged again. He felt his broken arm slide into place and slowly the pain faded.

_Two more?_ He hissed softly. Sygra, who had gotten thrown off and halfway up a tree earlier, slid to the ground and wound around his neck.

_Yes. Next one's mine._

Rahkesh lay still, drinking a third healing potion and casting healing spell, before he rose and retrieved his weapons and those of the man who had shot at him. The fight hadn't alerted the other two so he had time, he thought.

_They're coming._ Sygra warned him, Rahkesh grabbed the last knife and magicked a pile of snow onto the body to hide it, banishing the bloodstained snow to the other side of the ridge.

The first man arrived and he also carried a crossbow and an assortment of weapons. Rahkesh started to rise to attack, and then paused when he sensed something. Someone else was coming; Rahkesh sensed them even before Sygra's whispered alarm. The second man arrived beside the first and they spoke softly before standing and moving towards the end of the valley Rahkesh had fled around.

"Two mil. But God it's cold out here. My ass is numb." One of them complained. Two million. So the assassins had found him.

"MOTORUS TERRO!" The second man flung the spell at the ground at Rahkesh's feet in a movement too fast to see. The earth bucked and rolled. With a deep thundering sound the mountainside collapsed and pitched and bucked, flinging Rahkesh to the ground and sending Sygra flying off the edge of the mountain.

Rahkesh watched in horror as the black snake went flipping into the air and over the ridge edge. There was no way Sygra would survive the fall.

Without thinking he turned and summoned all the power he could and hurled it with all the destructive power he could give it.

The magic manifested itself as a massive bolt of lightning, so bright that it could be seen for hundred of miles blocking out everything else in a wave of light. The thunder shook the earth, and the mountainside collapsed away.

The mountain suddenly dropped away just behind his two attacker's feet. One moment the earth was there, the next it wasn't, falling away and leaving a massive cliff behind and the soil and rocks collapsed the valley floor.

On man died immediately, the other was picked up and thrown twenty feet straight up. He hit the earth hard and bones snapped audibly.

With a scream of rage and grief Rahkesh attacked him. Two knives hurled at the still form.

But despite his injuries he wasn't unconscious, and he rose and flipped the knives away with a burst of magic. Rahkesh lashed out with boils, strangulation curses, nerve shriveling cruses, a heart stopping hex and a combustion spell.

His opponent was very well trained; he deflected or dodged everything and retaliated. Rahkesh ducked a curse and rolled, coming up and ramming a knife into the man's stomach. Or where his stomach should have been. The other man anticipated the move and leaped away, sinking a knife into Rahkesh's back as he did.

Rahkesh stumbled, but the knife had gone in sideways and missed anything important and he yanked it out. His back hurt horribly, the knife had gone in along a shoulder blade, tearing the muscle apart.

From behind a wave of magic lifted him from the ground. Rahkesh cast a skull-splitter, forcing the man to drop the spell. Rahkesh landed on his feet and turned around to find the crossbow pointed at him. He readied himself to dodge.

An enormous set of jaws leaned down from the sky and picked the man up. The crossbow discharged harmlessly into the air. Rahkesh froze and watched in shock as the reptilian head rose, and crushed the man in huge jaws, grinding the teeth and ripping him to pieces, and then swallowed him and the crossbow.

The creature looked like a dragon, but it wasn't, it had no legs. Massive wings beat the air as it rose over the ridge, blocking out the sky. It was black, black with its scales edged in silver. A silvery pattern dragged across it and along the ridge that ran down its spine. The fangs when the mouth opened were bright white. It was big, though not so big as the dragon Enireth but plenty large enough. Rahkesh watched, awed and a little frightened as the wyvern rose high above him, then settled the long snakish coils of its body along the ridge and lowered its head to look him in the eye.

He knew those eyes.

_Sygra?_ He asked incredulously. The thin snake lips rose a little showing fangs in a grin.

_Yess._

_How?_

_You think I know?_ Rahkesh stared, and then lifted a hand to scratch the wyvern over one eye. It hissed and leaned into caress. Rahkesh felt himself begin to grin. Sygra was alive. The elation sweeping through him made him giddy.

_I thought you were dead._

_I don't kill so easy._

_I still thought you were dead._ Rahkesh hissed. Sygra tilted her head and watched him, then wrapped a neck coil around him and rubbed him with her nose reassuringly. Rahkesh sighed shakily and patted the wyvern. _So, can you go back?_

_Yes. Maybe. I think._

_Sygra?_

_Well…its like I didn't really change, like this is natural. _

_It probably is. _

_Yes but, it feel right. I can change back, I'm sure of it. _

_Perhaps you should try to make sure._ Rahkesh asked. Sygra thought, and then shivered. As she did the wings joined to the body and she shrank. Seconds later Sygra was wrapped around his neck again. _It's nice to have you back_. Rahkesh whispered.

_I'm fine master. _

_You are a wyvern. _

_I am?_

_Aren't you?_

_I don't know. _Rahkesh thought about that. He knew nothing of wyverns. Just their form. Not how they were born or matured. Could Sygra be a young wyvern? A hybrid?

_I'll have to do some research. _Rahkesh told her. He needed to consider this development. _Thank you._

_I said I'd look after you. _Sygra hissed in his ear, Rahkesh laughed.

_Lets go back. I still have a meeting to attend._

_Shall we fly? There's little that would challenge me._

-

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Whew. I had hoped to get right back into the killing Voldemrot (yes I spelled it Voldemrot on purpose) plot but the thing with Sygra needed to be put out there at some point.

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Important plot point – Saul's death. The only reason that character is in the story is because I needed someone I could kill off in that particular fashion.

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For those who are wondering about Malfoy, I'll be pulling that tie into the story next chapter.

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	23. Chapter 23

Yeah! Reviews! Thank you to all reviewers! Just a few notes here.

HArryReader – no I haven't forgotten buckbeak. Not at all, quite the contrary. But it'll be a while.

Pearlie – yes you did read the exchange between Namach and Xanthius correctly.

Edengrave – actually he did make one major mistake that allowed them realize that he was harry potter. Bet you can't guess it.

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Chapter 23

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"Ah, Mariah, at last, I was starting to think you wouldn't come." Professor Namach said, closing the door and gesturing towards the sitting room.

Mariah was truly exquisite. A dark skinned black eyed beauty with hundreds of long black braids. Rahkesh decided that she was younger than Cyala Ateres, but not by much. Maybe a few centuries younger. Unlike them she dressed in a more modern style, albeit the style of the high class wizarding society. Dark purple/red robes with a black Chinese dragon pattern on them and silver earrings and bracelets, with dragons on them. She also appeared to be unarmed, though Rahkesh knew that her clothing was probably specially designed to look that way.

"I'm sorry I'm late. I've been busy training my new slave." The female vampire said as she settled onto the couch, her heavy velvet cloak folding about her.

"Not a problem. What species?" Namach asked.

"Human, mortal. I found him in the forest a few weeks ago, a bit of mess then, didn't even put up a fight. I need a replacement, Linus just died." She explained, Namach nodded and vanished into the other room, appearing again with one of the diamond and gold wine glasses he favored. Filled with blood from whatever secret store he had. The older vampires were into wealth and decadence in a big way. Though Rahkesh hadn't met any middle aged vampires so perhaps that was the norm for the species.

Professor Xanthius rolled his eyes at the mention of mortal slaves and muttered something about "stuck up blood drinking fiends," Rahkesh pretended he hadn't heard anything any of them had said. He would have to question his friends later, he hadn't known vampires kept mortals as slaves. No one had ever mentioned it. Though now that he thought about it did make some sense, given the way most vampires viewed mortals – as partially intelligent and possibly dangerous prey. Perhaps he'd ask Silas about it. Rianae and Daray would probably ask if he was applying for the job.

Mariah called Eli over to her, and the magical frill-neck climbed up on the couch behind her head, covering the entire back of the couch, and sniffed at her hair. Rahkesh rolled his eyes; the damn lizard liked everyone but him. What had he ever done to it? Maybe Eli just didn't like humans.

He really wasn't feeling up to this. He knew he'd lost too much blood and ought to be resting. A blood replenishing potion had helped but it needed time. His foot still ached and the stab wound in his back, though healed, still had a twinge to it that he didn't like. He had checked all the weapons for poison and found nothing that he couldn't counter, but he wasn't satisfied with the way the back wound was healing.

The two professors undoubtedly knew something was up. Being an elf Xanthius had probably felt and heard the magic of the duel and Tristan was powerful enough to sense it as well. Though they hadn't said anything he hadn't missed the healing and strengthening charms on the glass of water Namach handed him. Really, they weren't necessary; rest would be the best thing for him. He wanted to go back to his rooms and do a little research on wyverns, and then sleep, but Mariah had apparently come all the way from Russia to speak with him.

"Nice to see you again Xanthius, been a while," Mariah said to the white haired elf, who didn't return her smile. "And you are?" Mariah asked Rahkesh.

"Rahkesh Asmodaeus, the first year student who was crazy enough to drink dragon's blood." Namach said. Rahkesh sighed and shook his head, okay maybe he was crazy, but it had been necessary at the time. And he hadn't known how dangerous it was.

"Ah, the one who survived." Mariah said, she put her wine glass aside and pulled out a notepad and pen. _Yeah_ Rahkesh thought _the one who survived…again._ He got so tired of that title. "How much do you know about dragons?"

"I can recognize a few species, but only a few and I know nothing about them." Rahkesh said, not the whole truth, he'd done a little research, but it would be easier to start from scratch.

"Very well. We're going to try to identify what species it was. Was its tongue whole or slit like a snakes?"

"Slit." Rahkesh replied, wondering why she'd started with the tongue.

"We can put aside a fourth of the dragon species based upon that." Mariah explained, sensing his confusion. "How many claws on the rear feet? How many wing claws?"

"Five claws on the rear feet, and six wing claws." Rahkesh said. Mariah wrote it down.

"Eye pupils slit like a cat's? Or were they round like ours?"

"It didn't have any pupils." Rahkesh replied. Mariah's eyebrows shot up.

"Oh? You're sure?"

"Yes."

"Did the eyes change color frequently?"

"Yes."

"Interesting, there aren't many species like that. Very rare. Were there horns directly above the eye-ridges?"

"No. It had a long ridge running up the nose and another ridge running back from each eye, but no horns."

"Three ridges on the face?"

"Yes."

"Thin or thick?"

"Very thick, like skull armor." Mariah stared at him for a few moments as if she was wondering if he was lying.

"Can you draw the shape of its scales?" She asked, handing him the notepad. Rahkesh drew a quick sketch. Enireth's scales had been smooth edged like a snake's with a little ridge down the middle. Mariah examined it for a moment.

"Colouring?"

"Bright, almost neon green, with a purple shine. And the scales were edged with dark purple. Wings had a dark purple and green pattern. Very shiny." Mariah wrote that down and sat back, thinking.

"Ears?"

"Big, right against the head, darker green, spiked. They looked like miniature wings. Spikes on the ends were bone."

"Tail?"

"Thin and whip like with small bones spikes."

"Was the underside and paler green?"

"Yes."

"Did the wings have scales of leathery skin like that of a bat?"

"The scales were thin and very small. So small that they were hard to see." Rahkesh replied. Mariah opened her eyes.

"That's not possible." She said.

"Why not?" Namach asked.

"The species of dragon you're describing has been extinct for over ten thousand years. That isn't possible." Mariah said.

"Well I'm not making this up, so your report of extinction ten thousand years ago must be wrong." Rahkesh replied.

"Tell me about the shape of its body. Was it thin and snake like or did it have a deep chest like a greyhound?"

"Snake-like. Actually it wasn't too much unlike a wyvern with legs." Rahkesh said, Mariah sigh and rubbed her forehead.

"You're describing a very young forest dragon. There are such dragons alive today but you're describing the original species from which they're descended. The dragons of the cloud forests - Nubigenae silvar – they never had any common name. I only know of them from three records left from the ancients. Two of those records are from Atlantis. There is one record from a sighting in South America eleven thousand years ago and six skeletons have been found. The most recent of those was a very old one that died about ten thousand years ago. There's been nothing since then. Nothing. And not for a lack of searching or interest."

"And now you can rewrite those records." Rahkesh said.

"It isn't that easy. I'd love to believe you but it seems too impossible, and you have no physical proof."

"Memories are hard to fake."

"Perhaps," Mariah said. "It gave you its blood?"

"Yes. It had injured a vampire friend of mine and he was dying. It was hoping I could use its blood to save his life."

"Did you?"

"I drank its blood then used my blood to heal him."

"Well I'm no expert on what effects dragon's blood should have, no one is. What about finding this dragon?" Mariah asked.

"How long do they live?"

"No one knows. Supposedly fifteen hundred years or so. They can't reproduce until they're five hundred; we know that from the Atlantis records. One egg is laid five years after mating, and guarded by both parents for a decade before it hatches. The young are on their own twenty or so years after hatching. A reproductive method like that indicates a long lifespan. Especially since the pair won't mate again until a decade or more after the fledgling leaves. Again all of it is from the records the people of Atlantis left us. It's only facts taken from two different research projects. That's two people who watched different pairs of dragons for fifty years. There're a few other mentions of native people observing them but not a lot of data. Perhaps others have more records," Mariah said with a pointed look at professor Xanthius.

"My people might know more of these dragons. We, after all, were around long before Atlantis was created." The elf said with a vaguely superior air.

"Or the fae, they have been around since the golden years of Atlantis. And the goblins might have some records. Though I doubt much has survived their wars." Mariah added. "If you can prove this Rahkesh it will be a big deal. The dragons of the cloud forests were among the earliest dragons. Not too far removed from the founding species."

"It might be best to keep this very quiet for now." Namach advised, Rahkesh nodded his agreement. The last thing he wanted right now was to be noticed.

"When you decide to go looking for this dragon, let me know." Mariah said. "I'm going to do some research on habitat changes over the last thousand years. These dragons prefer forests high in the mountains that don't get snow, or very little snow. They also need a near-tropical or jungle. And we know that they don't mix well with humans."

XXXX

"You know there is a student here whose mother works with wyverns." Ally told him, tossing the book back into the pile on the coffee table in the middle of his room. "She's a year ahead, Tyler." Rahkesh thought about that. He didn't want to share Sygra's new ability with anyone. Ally, Silas, and Daray knew, and that was it. And they only knew because they'd noticed a bloodstain on his shirt his cleaning spell had missed. The three had pestered him into telling them about the attack, but he didn't give them any details. In fact he lied so that they didn't know what weapons the attackers had used or how many there really were, or that they were dead. They thought the attackers had been students, and Rahkesh wasn't about to tell them otherwise.

"No. I'm not that desperate for information." Rahkesh decided.

"Best keep it quiet." Silas agreed. "Nuri, Satan, enough." The panther sitting beside Silas in the enlarged armchair flicked his ears and ignored him, continuing to strike at the air as the bat darted back and forth. Satan shrieked shrilly at the cat, Nuri purred happily, ignoring the bat's fury. Satan hissed and blew out a stream of fire onto Nuri's paw the next time it got close. Nuri yowled in surprise and pain. He leaped high into the air after the magical bat, almost hitting the ceiling. Satan was quicker than the cat and dodged around his lashing claws and settled down on Daray's shoulder, hissed angrily. Silas ducked as the panther landed almost on top of him, and grabbed the cat to keep him from leaping off the chair at Daray.

_They amuse me._ Sygra hissed from Rahkesh's shoulder.

_Yes_ Rahkesh agreed softly.

Daray reached up and grabbed his pet by the back of the neck. "Okay enough. If you want to fight take it outside." Satan nipped his hand apologetically. The bat then gave the vampire a bat's version of sad puppy eyes. "No I'm not angry." Daray muttered, picking up the bat and petting him.

"You are such a push-over." Ally told him.

"I am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Yes you are." Rahkesh agreed with Ally. "All the bat has to do is look at you and you cave." Daray showed a fang and growled. Rahkesh ignored him.

"So when are we going to go find the dragon whatever his name is?" Silas asked.

"Not anytime soon. This might take time." Rahkesh replied. "We're all busy enough right now." Rahkesh, Ally and Daray had all added tracking to their classes. Silas had chosen nonmagical disguise. Things had been very quiet amongst the students recently – several deaths could do that. Saul, two dead werewolves, and one dead fae.

But that quiet wouldn't last. Rahkesh had been getting a lot of glares from the other students in his bloodmagic class. So had Daray and Silas. The general feeling was that they had gone too far too fast. And no one liked the idea of having younger students being better than they were.

Rianae had been moved three semesters ahead in thread magic and had already had one challenge from another thread magic student, that dead fae. Ally was the smart one, keeping a very low profile. But she was starting to make some serious waves in her useful spells class. That class was basically a contest to see which students could memorize and learn the most spells in one year. And her skill with martial arts and the re-curve bow had made an impression on the students were headed towards being assassins or other fighting-based professions. And they were starting throwing stars next week, Ally's specialty. Enireth, if he lived, would just have to wait.

"Anyway you can ask this Tyler about wyverns without her getting suspicious?" Rahkesh asked.

"Sure. She's in our thread magic class." Rahkesh thanked her, thread magic, he still hadn't made any progress at that.

"I doubt we'd be allowed to go dragon hunting even if we wanted to." Daray told his cousin, "the master of Moscow has called up his people and gone on a massive killing spree, every vampire unable to put up a decent fight has been killed. That's about seventy dead vampires. And he's expanding to hunt out every young vampire in the country. Word is that the master of Sydney and the master of Tokyo are getting ready to do the same. And there's some nutty ancient vampire running around all over Central America killing every vampire under five hundred he finds."

"Crap." Silas muttered. "I hope they finish before summer or it's going to be miserable cooped up at the castle. And grandmother will insist of extra training." The two vampires traded miserable looks.

"I hope they don't ask Namach to start killing off vampires here." Daray replied. "Not that he'd listen to them or anything but he doesn't need an excuse to step it up any."

"I thought the vamps were being awfully quiet." Rahkesh said, "It's been more than two weeks since any of our classmates have tried to bite me. And I don't think its Namach you should worry about. The fae are real pissed over whatever that was with the master of Vitoria."

"The _vampires_ are pissed over that." Daray corrected. "And it's not the fae we're angry at."

"And it isn't the fae we need to be worried about. Apparently there was an elf involved who got injured so now the elves have decided that _they_ have a right to kill the city master." Rianae said, appearing from nowhere. Rahkesh snarled aloud. The three vampires laughed at him. Rianae magically enlarged the couch (since Daray refused to sit up and make room) so she could sit as well.

"How did you know that?" Silas asked.

"Word from my mother. She's our ambassador. The fae are mad at the vampires and elves, and the elves are mad at the vampires and fae, and the vampires and are getting very worried because when it comes down to it those two species will ally with each other." Rianae said. "Now all we need are the werewolves getting ticked off about something and we'll have a real party."

"So glad I'm mortal human." Ally said.

"Hmm. Unless the humans in that region do something stupid. Then all three species will turn on us." Rahkesh said. Funny how he'd never thought of or worried over such things when he was at Hogwarts. In retrospect he should have, but no one else did. Having blinders about other species wasn't just limited to Europe either; humans tended to band together against "others" and therefore didn't pay nearly enough attention. One day that would be a big problem. He was getting the impression that just about everyone he had known back home had completely underestimated the other magical species.

"Let's see if we can't keep out of this. The anti-human movements among all three of those species are already strong enough." Ally said.

"I don't think there'll be enough anti-mortal vampires left to be much of a concern soon. Most the troublesome ones were young. And the fae have been pretty content to stay in their hidden worlds for the past few millennia. The real worry is the werewolves and elves. But werewolves have been happy enough since Australia and Japan gave them equal rights as humans. And there isn't any point in worrying about the elves; they're into extermination in a big way. So if they get ticked off every human on the planet will be dead before you know they're angry." Rianae said. "You mortals are safe enough for now."

"Is that supposed to be reassuring?" Ally asked. "That bitch Atalia tried to bite me today."

"But it didn't work now did it?" Silas pointed out.

"No, I took a leaf out of Rahkesh's book and shoved a miniature cattle prod under her fangs. Oh did she _scream_." Ally chuckled nastily. Daray groaned.

"Damn it. Rahkesh whatever obsession you've got, it's contagious."

XXX

Beauxbatons Attacked!

Elite Wizarding School Closes!

Rahkesh glanced across the papers, the two latest copies of the Daily prophet. His former home was not in good shape. Though it hadn't been in great shape when he left either. And everything was going downhill. It was depressing.

The Beauxbatons Headmistress announced today that thirty students are missing and presumed captured while fourteen more are dead.

"The others have been returned home to their families." Madam Maxine said when interviewed. "I feel that with the buildings in shambles they are better off at home for now."

There is no word on whether or not Beauxbatons will reopen but most seem to believe that it will not. Already tutors are in high demand as parents attempt to adapt to this new state of affairs while continuing their children's education.

Rahkesh put that paper aside, wondering how Fleur's younger sister was fairing, Gabrielle would still be in school. He hoped the young veela had been among the survivors. Unfortunately he was still keeping up a disguise and avoiding questions about his home, family, and background, so he couldn't talk to anyone about how depressing it was with more bad news coming in every newspaper. Perhaps he ought to go back briefly and see his…friends…or whatever remained of them. And maybe Regulus would have responded to his letter.

Upon leaving Grimmauld Place Rahkesh had left a letter on the kitchen table for Regulus. Saying only that he knew he was there and that since Regulus was the last remaining blood heir of the family he would be happy to pass on the house to him if he wished. It could only have been Regulus there that night. Rahkesh had sealed it against both Narcissa and Belatrix. There might have been other relatives, but his instructions had been specific, and only a male heir of the direct bloodline could have gotten in. That was Regulus, since he had kept Malfoy out as well. And if Belatrix did have children, well, the house would only permit the heir to enter, and if Rahkesh's' guess about Regulus was correct that meant that it could only have been the supposed dead death eater. Maybe it was time to go back and check on things

Rahkesh took out a piece of parchment and a quill. Before anything else it would be good to contact Fleur. Having a veela family as allies might just be useful.

Dear Fleur,

I heard about the attack on Beauxbatons and I'm writing to ask if Gabrielle is okay. It sounded horrible in the papers, I hope she's alright.

I have been away from Europe for many months so I don't know what the situation is like there, but it sounds awful.

I apologize for not being able to attend the wedding, I don't know if Ron and Hermione told you why I couldn't come, I think they did, if they didn't ask them. Tell Bill that if his werewolf side is causing problems I do have wolfsbane potion on hand, which might help.

Best wishes,

Harry.

Rahkesh felt odd signing his old name, it didn't seem to be him anymore, he hadn't even thought of that name in weeks. He almost removed the name, but left it anyway. With his minor change of magical signature no one looking at the parchment from outside the envelope would sense his presence. As soon as his blood tree was large enough he'd also have a new wand, with the disguise, wand change, and magic change no one would ever recognize him. But until then his wand was his only weakness. And he couldn't be seen, in case aurors decided to check his wand.

Rahkesh sealed the letter and left it on his desk, now he just needed to find a safe way to send it.

XXXX

"So what's the deal with this guy?" Silas asked, sliding into a seat beside Rahkesh. Daray took the seat on Silas other side, which positioned them so that they were along a wall with no one behind them and another wall beside Daray. This left only Rahkesh's side and the front open. If the occasional glances coming their way from the other students filing into the classroom were any indication they had good reason to be so cautious. Their new bloodmagic class did not approve of their presence. They were too young, too advanced, and an oddity. And ever since they'd entered this class they'd been experiencing a lot more of the competition that made Akren so difficult. It was not unusual for one student to sabotage another's work, sometimes in lethal ways, in order to get ahead.

The first few weeks the class had been taught by Namach, since the other teacher was away. But today professor Vaeryes was back, and the other students were looking excited. Which probably meant that they thought the professor wouldn't approve of his youngest students anymore than the older students did. It was unfortunate that Namach only taught the beginner level and the most advanced level, leaving the other bloodmagic classes to Vaeryes.

"He's human, mostly. One parent was a werewolf. He graduated from Akren a year early, got hired by some agency to go take on poachers in Africa. Got recruited by another agency to fight drug lords in South America, came back here to teach after his face got in the papers and everyone knew who he was. And when I say _fight_ I mean assassinate." Rahkesh told him. "Apparently he likes to try to trick his students into making mistakes so they kill themselves. He thinks it teaches confidence and self-reliance." He had asked Rianae to gather whatever information she could on Vaeryes before the teacher came back. Rianae was good at that.

Vaeryes was an albino - that was the first thing Rahkesh noticed; the second was the missing right eye and gold eye patch. The third was the lack of shoes and socks. Professor Vaeryes appeared to prefer to go barefoot. The fourth thing Rahkesh noticed was that Vaeryes bloodmagic runes were visible. Usually you couldn't see a person's runes, once healed after the ritual they became invisible. But if he looked closely he could just barely make out faint thin gold runes scrawled across Vaeryes skin like millions of twisted spider webs. It gave his skin an odd shine. His hair was cut very short and when he faced the class Rahkesh saw that his remaining eye was white, with no color at all in the iris.

"I had some of you last semester in this class, if anyone is unhappy about their grades on the final and having to retake the class, don't come running to tell me about it because I don't care." Vaeryes said immediately with a sneer that would have done Snape proud. The four of five hands that had been up went down.

"Very good. For the rest of you, you are expected to complete two rituals during this semester. If you can find a good reason for not doing so, such as catching Ebola, you will not have to. Yes?" He asked, seeing Silas's hand.

"Did someone actually use that excuse?" There were snickers and chuckles from a few people.

"Yes they did. They caught the disease on purpose. They then died, not a good strategy for an A grade." Vaeryes said. Now there was a lot more snickering and amusement. "And who are you? You weren't in the lower class last semester."

"Silas. Myself and these two got moved up a few semesters." Silas said, gesturing to Rahkesh and Daray. Vaeryes stared hard at them for a moment.

"How many semesters did you skip?" The three traded looks.

"Um, well we never actually completed the beginner class – the last few weeks Namach had us doing independent study – so ah…all of them? Almost all, we've had ten weeks of official training." Silas finally answered for all of them. The whole class turned around to stare at them. Daray glared at their classmates while Rahkesh leaned back in his seat and gave them all a challenging look. Everyone turned and looked back at Vaeryes.

"You three seriously think that after ten weeks of training you can keep up with this class?" Vaeryes asked, sounding incredulous. "Absolutely not."

"It was recommended that we take this class." Rahkesh replied.

"And _I_ do not want to have to slow down the rest of the class to let you catch up on material that you should already know. And as the teacher _I_ have the last say in this and I don't want untrained students in my classroom." Vaeryes told him.

"If we can't keep up, we'll leave. If not, you will acknowledge the Akren policy of putting students into classes for which they are suited rather than where their amount of official training would put them." Rahkesh said, putting it out as a challenge.

"Very well." Vaeryes said sharply. He turned back to the board and began a lesson on changing knives in mid-ritual. The three friends exchanged grins, they knew this. They had reviewed it during their time travel. If Vaeryes wanted to make a spectacle of them on the first day he was going to fail.

By the time class was over Rahkesh was just about ready to kill someone, and Silas had an impedimenta spell on Daray to keep him from killing anyone. Their new classmates had shown their disapproval all class through any nasty way they could come up with. And Professor Vaeryes didn't do a thing to stop them. Someone had set Rahkesh's shoes on fire, someone else poured itching powder on Silas and someone in the classroom had been casting erasing spells so their notes got repeatedly erased. And the slugs that had somehow ended up in Daray's book bag had really sharp teeth. On the way out the door Rahkesh had to sidestep several feet, he made a point of dripping a few drops of acid onto the last person.

Once the class was outside the room the three turned for their rooms, not wanting to hang around with their classmates. Rahkesh sensed a movement behind him, and suddenly he was turned around and flung up against the wall. The other students stopped to watch, anticipating their upstart classmate was going to get a beating. Daray and Silas dropped to the back and waited.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" The werewolf who'd pushed him demanded. "You think you can just waltz in here and do whatever you want do you?"

"Yes, actually I do think that." Rahkesh replied. "Only I don't actually know how to waltz." The werewolf swung a fist at his face, Rahkesh drew a silver knife.

The werewolf jumped back, Rahkesh's knife missing his hand by an inch. Rahkesh smirked and waited, surely they wouldn't give up that easy?

A second later he was thrown against the wall again, and guessed immediately that this student was a vampire; the strength alone told him that. Rahkesh saw fangs flashing towards his neck, and shot a wandless electricity spell. The vampire shrieked in pain as the shocks traveled right through his fangs. Rahkesh broke his nose and flung him away wandlessly.

There were others behind him, Rahkesh sensed six and they weren't trying to hide their presence. He turned, conjuring a wave of fire. Someone else blew it away and the werewolf from before tackled him.

Or tried to, Rahkesh magically enlarged the staff given to him by his Chachapoyaro friends, and swung it around in a blur. The _thonk_ sound as it connected with the werewolf's head was very satisfying. Unfortunately he was a werewolf, and therefore it didn't do as much damage as it would have had he been human. Rahkesh spun quickly, cracking another student across the face, his cheekbone shattered loudly. As he spun Rahkesh brought out a knife and rammed it through the hand of another attacking student who had come up behind him, driving the knife between two of the stones that made up the walls. The other student screamed in pain and dropped the knife he was holding. Someone started casting curses, Rahkesh redirected them, making people scatter as they flung about unpredictably.

Suddenly one of the fae students leaped at him, Rahkesh turned to get ready to fight, but the fae was quicker and the heel of his hand smashed into Rahkesh's' nose. Rahkesh felt something break and blood flew, he jerked away and fae struck him again right over the heart.

It like a heart attack, the blow had not been meant to damage, but it had channeled magic. Violent magic. Rahkesh stiffened and sharp burning pain shot through his chest. He could hear his heart stop, and then begin to beat irregularly. His vision went grey and everything seemed to slow down. He couldn't move, at all. Nothing responded. Distantly Rahkesh was aware that several of the vampire students had turned on Daray and Silas, but he couldn't move or think through the horrible pain. The others were gathering around, watching him as he staggered, unable to think or see through the pains in his chest. His lungs began to burn from lack of air, and he realized that he had fallen to the floor, still unable to move enough to even breathe. Then everything began to clear. His vision came back, the pain vanished and he could breathe again. Rahkesh swung the staff, catching the fae, who was leaning over to watch him, right in the throat.

The other student collapsed with both hands about his neck, choking, his eyes wide and pain. The force of the blow had probably broken something, or partially crushed his windpipe. Checking the vampires, Rahkesh saw that Daray was feeding on one of their attackers while Silas exchanging curses with another. His two friends could more than take care of themselves so Rahkesh ignored the other fight.

His own attackers had gotten over their shock at his recovery and were attacking again. He heard a sound and struck out behind him, someone gasped as the other end of the staff went into his stomach. Rahkesh concentrated hard on a sharp point and pushed hard, the person cried out as the transfigured weapon went into his guts. Rahkesh pulled it back and spun again. Sending blood flying into another attacker's eyes, this one was mortal. Six ripping curses in rapid succession made him back off, dripping blood. The werewolf attacked again, and Rahkesh let loose a four-pointed silver throwing star. The werewolf screamed as it hit him right below his ribcage. Rahkesh threw three more, putting one under an arm, another between his ribs, and another on his thigh inches from his groin. He then summoned them back. Placing his back to the wall Rahkesh got ready for the next round.

But no one came, they were all watching the werewolf, who was shaking and gasping. The wounds from the throwing stars had not healed, as they would have had they been anything else. And they were burning, the skin turned red and blistering. Spreading from the punctures along his skin were faint lines of burns as the poison on the throwing stars entered his blood. The werewolf snarled at Rahkesh, Rahkesh snarled back and took a few steps forward. To his surprise the other student backed off. Rahkesh held up a throwing star and cleaned it magically; he then took the blood from the other three and transferred it into a small glass container. Then he direct a nasty grin at the shocked looking werewolf

"Coated in a distilled wolfsbane solution. Painful eh?" The werewolf growled. "Rahkesh growled back and turned away, headed for his rooms, he didn't wait for the other students to move, but pushed a wall of air ahead so they stumbled back. Once he was clear of the throng he turned back and held up the glass jar. "Blood can be used for many things, remember that, I have yours."

Rahkesh returned to his rooms and collapsed into a chair, still shaking from the fae's magical attack. Silas arrived in his room a few moments after he did.

"What was that thing he did?" Silas asked.

"No idea. Felt like a heart attack, almost. But he wouldn't have used a lethal attack, not here. So it couldn't have been meant to kill." Rahkesh said. "Hurt though." He wiped at his bloodied nose and cast a bone mending spell, wincing as he felt piece of bone slid quickly into place. His eyes were still watering from pain. A cleaning charm removed the blood and healing charms made sure the bone set correctly. "That's the first time I've had my nose broken, whoever that was he's fast."

"Any permanent damage?"

"Probably not, he may not be so lucky though." Rahkesh said, wondering if the damage to the fae student's throat was healable.

"You realize that he might die from that."

"Yeah, didn't think of it at the time." Rahkesh said, shaking his head, that had been stupid. There was a reason you weren't able to directly kill someone in Akren, it was because the magical backlash would kill you.

Daray showed up several minutes later, still licking the blood off of his fangs.

"How many of them did you get?" Rahkesh asked the smug looking vampire.

"Five." Daray said proudly, three vampires, one fae, and one mortal. I've never tasted fae blood before, I like it. Perhaps I shall make it regular part of my menu."

"_Five_, isn't that just a little excessive?" Rahkesh asked. He didn't have to ask to know that not all of those five had attacked Daray, the vampire had merely taken the opportunity while everyone was watching Rahkesh to drink form several of them. Only the vampires had actually attacked him.

"Not at all. That fae that got you, he's an Amadan." Daray told him, "I got that from the mind of the fae who's blood I drank. They can cause instant paralysis, of a specific body part or the whole. But you can't die from their touch. You'll feel like you're dying, you'll feel like you're dying continuously until you do die. But you won't die directly from their magic. The magic will keep you alive, even though you're suffocating and your blood eventually stops moving. Very painful. Very nasty. Sometimes reversible." The vampire told him, "and how did you manage to break that?"

"No idea." Rahkesh said again. "Enireth?"

"The dragon's blood. Maybe. Well you've gone and shocked the fae witless. They've never seen anything like that happen before. Good going."

"I'd rather have not had it happen at all, no everyone will want to know how I did it, and _I_ don't know." Rahkesh replied. "That wasn't a challenge just over our being the class was it?" He asked, thinking of the large number of vampires who had attacked Daray and Silas, not all of whom had been in their bloodmagic class.

"No. The vampires took the chance to go after me, still curious about what happened over break. And the only way they're going to find out is by drinking my blood." Daray said, "But after that, perhaps they'll stop complaining about the change they can sense in my magics."

"Not likely, they'll just be more curious." Silas told his cousin, "and they'll get whoever the current head vampire of the students is to fight you over it."

"You know you vampires are a lot like the werewolves, always setting up a strict hierarchy." Rahkesh mused aloud, ignoring the furious glares he was receiving at comparing them to werewolves.

"We are not like werewolves." Silas snapped.

"Who said we were?" Rianae asked, leaning in the door. Ally followed her into the room and they took the two remaining chairs.

"What not appearing out of thin air?" Rahkesh asked sarcastically.

"Your damn snake attacked me." Rianae told him. Sygra uncoiled from the female vampire's leg and crossed the floor to Rahkesh; he knelt and picked her up.

_I tried to strangle her, but it didn't work, so I spat in her face instead._ Sygra hissed to him as she wrapped herself around his shoulders and neck.

"And who said we were like werewolves?" Rianae asked again.

"He did." Both vampires replied, pointing at Rahkesh. Ally pulled out a tissue and started coughing into it. The three vampires glared.

"You both form such rigid hierarchies, you just lack packs." Rahkesh explained.

"We are not in any way like werewolves," Rianae said stiffly, "we do not lose our minds, ever, and we do not transform into animals, and we are much more intelligent and civilized than any werewolf pack."

Ally started chuckling, but turned it into another round of coughs when all three vampires turned to look at her.

"So you claim, as the impartial observer I think otherwise." Rahkesh said. "What _is_ it with you and my couch?" He asked sharply as Daray flopped down, taking up the full length of the couch. Seconds later Satan flew in and settled onto the backrest. "You and that damn bat. You complain about _my_ obsessions?"

"I just happen to like this couch - I'm not obsessed with it."

"Please, you spend more time on that couch that you do in classes. You know I don't think I've ever gotten a chance to use that couch, and its _mine_." Rahkesh said, realizing that it was very true, ever since Daray had decided the couch was his no one else got a chance to use it.

"Yes, well, it's a very nice couch." The vampire said, Satan chirped his agreement. The other tree started grinning as the recognized yet _another_ confrontation over the couch starting.

"Yes but it's _mine_." Rahkesh pointed out, again.

"I don't know, given how much fur Satan's managed to shed on it." Rianae said, "It might be his."

"And therefore mine." Daray agreed.

"But _I _created it!"

"Too bad."

"But _I _created it!"

"And now its mine." Daray said, smiling, "And stay away from the controls of the wires you installed in it." He added when Rahkesh glanced at the panel beside the table that controlled the ten thousand volt wires he'd run through the couch cushions, powered by a battery and charged by magic. He intended to put it on timer, so if anyone sat on it without the alarm being turned off, by him, they'd get electrocuted. "Poor couch," the vampire said, patting the arm of the couch sympathetically, "being mistreated like that." Rahkesh growled and the others started snickering, "perhaps it should be relocated to my rooms, where it'll be safe from sadistic mortals."

"It is _my_ couch and it is staying _here_!" Rahkesh said, ignoring his laughing friends. "You keep your fanged carcass away from it from now on, its mine."

"You just keep telling yourself that." The vampire agreed, "we know better, don't we Satan?" The vampire bat's sharp reply made them all wince.

"Squeaky little menace." Rahkesh muttered. Daray pretended he hadn't heard.

"Speaking of menaces, there is a pair of vampire twins a few years up who want to challenge us." Rianae told Daray.

"I don't know them, what do they fight like?" Daray asked.

"Not sure. They're pretty good though, everyone seems to avoid them most of the time. And they always prey on the other students with little retaliation." Rianae said, "they're in one of the high level dueling classes, we could watch the class, it's in the main gym."

"I'll come too," Silas said, "I'd like to watch, any chance they're after me as well?"

"Not likely." Rianae said, "You're not as threatening as we are."

"Right up until he calls the panther – GODDAMN IT DARAY!" Rahkesh roared, seeing the sign "Property of Daray" the vampire had left hanging on his couch. Daray fled the room, Satan flying after him. Rianae followed them out, laughing. Rahkesh shot a curse at the sign, only to have it flash neon orange and remain unmoved "I'm going to kill him!" Rahkesh snarled, "death by botuber puss! I'll add mercury to his blood!" he didn't notice Ally and Silas leaving, laughing quietly, as he plotted revenge.

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Please review, reviews are good for the soul.

In case you hadn't realized it, the couch is the comical relief of the story.

This chapter contains a good hint at what my current plans for the after Voldemort story are. Three sentences containing about fifty-four words. Don't drive yourselves crazy trying to find it please.

Okay, Malfoy's current fate has resolved, temporarily. Malfoy haters rejoice. Whoever InD is you can stop emailing me about it. (I hate it when people email you with questions and then don't respond when you email them back.)


	24. Chapter 24

I apologize if this is a little late, it's been flooding hear in the Northeastern US and I've been rather busy dealing with that.

-wow! 71 reviews for the last chapter! THANK YOU everyone.

-Thanks to The Apprentice for the thoughtful reviews.

-zhera: yep you found it.

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Chapter 24

Rahkesh put aside the knife and rolled his head around, hearing his neck crack as he stretched stiffened muscles. Eight hours of cutting exact lines and runes into his skin. His whole body ached horribly. The circulation slowly returning to his legs and hands brought tears to his eyes.

There was blood pooled around him, some of the runes for this set had to be cut deep into the skin, while others were usually shallower. The mild pain relieving potion had helped, but not a lot. And he couldn't take anything stronger without affecting his blood chemistry.

This newest set of runes was designed to stop his muscles from atrophying while unused. Since it was likely that at some point he would sustain and injury bad enough to keep him from exercising for several weeks Rahkesh had thought that this set of blood magic runes would be practical. Even if he was in a coma for a year or more, once this set of rituals was completed he would be just as strong and coordinated when he awakened as he was before. The entire thing would likely take sixteen or more rituals to get to the point where it would last for more than a few months. He had just completed the second set. The first one had been done two weeks before.

Rahkesh undid the blood runes on the floor, surrounding him in an eight pointed star pattern. The entire floor of the massive chamber was covered in runes and hieroglyphs drawn in his blood. His skin itched from the potion he had had to bathe in before beginning and all he wanted was a hot shower and a lot of sleep. Picking up the three knives (this ritual had required three different knives) he went out into the waiting room and pressed his hand to the handprint on the wall, cleaning the room of his blood. Her had left a minor blood replenishing potion on the bench and he drank it, for once envying the vampires who could just drink blood and be fine in seconds. He wrapped himself in his rob and went outside, Namach was sitting outside another of the chambers, watching as one of the more advanced students worked on a ritual.

"How did I do?" Rahkesh asked, knowing Namach would have watched. The ancient _always_ seemed to be around whenever he was doing bloodmagic, even if he didn't tell him about it in advance. Either Namach was worried he'd destroy the school accidentally (always a possibility given Rahkesh's' power) or, as Daray claimed, Namach was stalking him.

"You pushed it a little, it would be better to take more time between rituals." The ancient vampire advised, rising to walk beside him.

"I sensed that it could be done safely."

"Just because you _can_ doesn't always mean that you _should_. You have four years here, take your time."

Rahkesh grimaced; time was what he was rather short on. He still didn't know how the assassins had found him, but if they had others could too. After the attack he had moved a lot of the plants he was growing, and the animals he had brought back, from the Potter vault to his new one, just in case. He had also begun work on preparing a second trunk, to be kept in a second earring. If he had to leave Akren then he wanted to be ready. It would not be out of the question for Voldemort to send suicide attackers who would kill him in the valley itself, where they would also die. The past few weeks had been quiet, but that didn't mean he was safe.

"Would it be possible to put two rituals together into one, if they were for different sets of bloodmagic?" Rahkesh asked.

"No, there had been a lot of experimentation on that, with disastrous results. Take it one at a time, and slow down a little." Namach told him. "Besides, the rituals are long enough without combining them to make them longer. Your next one for that set may well end up taking ten hours to complete." Rahkesh winced, eight hours was bad enough. Small wonder so many bloodmagic users went insane in the middle of a ritual. Cutting runes into himself for eight hours made him want to scream, or jump off a cliff, but he'd settle for a shower and sleep.

"Professor Lowul is ready to being those tests to see what invisible changes the dragons' blood has caused. She wants samples of your blood, skin, hair, tears, intestinal fluids, saliva, and bone marrow. And she might want to do a spinal tap at some point. Healer Amii will take the samples whenever you can find the time." Namach said. Rahkesh groaned, he'd had some small hope left that they'd forget. As much as he wanted to find out how the dragons blood had affected him he wasn't looking forward to this. The procedures for getting bone marrow and intestinal fluid samples were not pleasant. And he didn't like anyone having access to his blood just on principle, never mind the stuff that could be done to a person through their blood.

"I'm not going to get a choice about this am I?"

"Nope."

"And Daray?"

"We're keeping his transformation a bit more of a secret. Everyone knows something happened but no one has the slightest clue what. They'll never come up with a physical and magical vampire-demon combination through partial animagus transformation. We were going to keep you a secret as well but ever since you threw off that curse Haedil used…"

"Huh?"

"The Amadan, that fae you got into a fight with? His name is Haedil. And you shouldn't have been able to throw that off. You might have been better off, Rahkesh, had you not fought it. There's never been a case of a mortal breaking an Amadan's curse before. Never. The fae haven't written home about it yet, but once all the fae find out there's going to be a lot of high level interest in you. What are you doing?" Namach asked, Rahkesh had started pounding his head on the wall. He didn't need this, he really didn't. Fuck it; he did _not_ need the fae taking an active interest in his magical abilities. Why couldn't he just be anonymous? Why did he always end up doing things that were shockingly unique?

"Kill me."

"I'm sure you don't mean that literally." Namach said calmly, pulling Rahkesh away from the wall, "and no matter how hard you try pounding your head into a wall will not solve anything." Rahkesh whimpered and shook his head, there had to be a way to keep the fae from finding him or testing his magics once they heard about what he'd done. Now he had to deal with the fae as well as his old friends, Voldemort, Regulus Black, and assassins, and the damn dragons blood.

"When is Mariah coming back?"

"A week, maybe two. Her new slave is proving troublesome."

"I didn't need to hear that." Rahkesh still hadn't asked any of his friends about the slave owning practices of vampires, he wasn't sure he wanted to know about it. Namach ignored his comment.

"And that mad dark wizard from Europe just sent the Russian vampires a letter asking to speak with them." Rahkesh managed not to jump at the information. Voldemort had contacted the Russian vampires? Did that mean he already had the support of the ones closer to home? Determined not to show too much interest he calmly cleaned off his knives in a sink, and dried them.

"What sort of nutcase would try that?"

"Apparently this chap thinks he's something special and everyone ought to listen to him."

"Probably never met a vampire before."

"Probably. I know the vampire who is currently the vampiric ruler of Russia, he's an Akren alumni. And I bet he's laughing his ass off right now at the idea of wizard thinking he can demand an audience." Rahkesh nodded, and didn't ask anything more. He wanted to know what was happening but he didn't want anyone to notice his interest in Voldemort's doings. Namach left to find the other students and Rahkesh conjured up several really fluffy towels and found a shower stall. Great, Voldemort wanted the vampires to help him.

And the vampires would like the idea. Rahkesh's blood went cold when realized that the vampires, not happy with the way mortals treated them, would actually take Voldemort's proposal seriously. To a point, Voldemort was a wizard after all. The weak younger vampires, seeking safety from their elders, who were just now starting to cut down on the numbers of vampires, would join Voldemort for protection. Then there would be a war, between the elder vampires and Voldemort and his younger vampires.

Back in his rooms Rahkesh, suddenly more worried than weary, picked through his books on vampire history. It had been a long time since there was a war amongst the vampires, or between vampires and mortal magic users. A thousand years since the last vampire war. That time the numbers of young vampires had gotten completely out of control. The elders had attacked, the young had attacked back. The elders had one in the end. But it had been a cruel and vicious fight. The desperate younger vampires, rather than asking for mercy or trying to impress their elders so they might be permitted to live, had instead turned hundreds of adult mortals into vampires, and sent them into battle. The vampire ruler of London had entombed, alive, six hundred young vampires. He had left them in enchanted iron caskets beneath the city for a hundred years. After that he had gone through them, one by one, drinking their blood and killing them. All but five, whom he'd deemed acceptable, those he had taken on as apprentices.

The book was full of horror stories from that last war. Small wonder the young vampires were so scared of their elders. But every few centuries the young still over populated, and vampires had no real predators to keep them in line. So it fell to the older vampires to kill off the unacceptable younger vampires, and keep the best.

The last time the mortal and vampires had gone to war, that had been more than a thousand years before. Again the books provided enough horror stories to give him nightmares for weeks. That war had been religiously motivated, mortal witches and wizards seeking to destroy the vampires. The vampires had won. But they had decided to let the mortal live. Interesting. When they won that war the vampires could easily have enslaved all the worlds' mortals, since the non-magic ones didn't have any defenses against vampires. But they hadn't. The book did say why.

And now Voldemort was about to bring about another war. The old vampires would surely refuse any allegiance. The frightened younger ones would not.

Wondering when the world had decided to flip and go completely to hell Rahkesh put the books aside. There wasn't a thing he could do about this. Voldemort had no idea what he was doing.

"You look depressed." Rahkesh shrugged at Silas, who had just walked in. Nuri bounded across the room to say hello, then went and lay down before the fireplace Rahkesh had built into the wall of his room.

"Tell me, if the vampires and the mortals, the magical ones, go to war, what do you think the outcome will be?" Rahkesh asked.

"The end of mortal civilization, a return to the dark ages. Or you all become our slaves." Daray had appeared, from nowhere, on his couch, _again_. He laughed when Rahkesh glared. Rahkesh wandlessly flipped the switch.

AAAAAARRRGGHH!

Daray roared in pain and leaped off the couch as ten thousand volts of electricity passed through his back. Ignoring the shrieking vampire Rahkesh turned back to Silas and raised an eyebrow.

"I have to agree with what he said. Only this time there's a chance that the elders won't tolerate letting the mortals off that easy." Silas said, grinning as he ignored the cursing come from his cousin's direction.

"Bastard, what the hell was that for?" Daray snarled.

"I felt like electrocuting someone, you offered." Rahkesh answered. Daray sneered, and boldly flopped down on the couch again, this time on his stomach since the scorch marks across his back appeared to be healing rather slowly.

"What on earth was the screaming about?" Ally asked from the doorway.

"Nothing, just a silly vampire getting roasted." Rahkesh replied.

"Jackass." Daray growled, "He fucking electrocuted me."

"Language." Ally warned, "And you knew he was gong to do that some day. This is Tyler." She added, nodding to the mortal woman who had followed her in.

Tyler had the darkest skin Rahkesh had ever seen on a human being. Shiny black, he hadn't known human skin could naturally get that dark.

"Hey. How much electricity?" Tyler asked. Looking over the crisscrossing stripes burned into Daray's back by the electricity.

"Ten thousand volts."

"Nice. Battery powered?"

"Magically rechargeable." Rahkesh said with a nod.

"Any chance you could install one in my room? On the doormat? My neighbor is a vampire, keeps trying to drink my blood." Tylar said, Rahkesh decided that he liked her instantly. A chance to electrocute another vampire.

"Rahkesh, if this turns into a general trend, you are going to die." Daray warned him.

"Can't stand the thought of your prey kicking your ass?" Tyler asked sweetly.

"Rahkesh you are in deep shit." Daray warned him.

"Of course." Rahkesh told Tyler, grinning at the fuming vampire. "I've also been working on traps involving radioactive slime, for silly little vampires who don't knock." Tyler snickered and both vampires turned to glare at Rahkesh. "What? Until I caught Silas in the electrical fishing net you used to use the window to surprise me, are you expecting to catch me summoning demons or conversing with the devil?"

"They have this species wide inferiority complex that drives them to do things like that, to prove to themselves that they aren't inferior, when everyone knows they are and just humors them." Tyler explained, "they can't help it."

"Perhaps group visits to a psychologist?" Ally suggested.

"Or a support group, Vampires with Inferiority Issues." Tyler said.

"What is this? Beat up on the vampire day?" Daray asked, his back had nearly completely healed.

"Daray dearest, I hate to burst your bubble but - " Ally began.

"Every day is beat up on the vampire day." Tyler finished.

XXXX

"Why are the fae glaring at us?" Rahkesh asked Tyler as they worked on their vertisarum potions.

"I'm not sure, but it's rather disturbing." Tyler replied, glancing around nervously.

"Some humans attacked and captured several fae a few days ago." Rianae said from the other side of Tyler. And the fae's bodies were found yesterday. Someone attempted to remove their magic and use it to summon up some new type of Inferi."

"Damn, okay I'd be pissed too." Tyler said.

"It gets worse, the manner of death was apparently particularly horrible and several of them were children." Rianae continued.

Rahkesh tilted a glass beaker so he could watch the fae students behind him in its surface. They were definitely angry. Voldemort was really serious about causing a war.

"Who do you think did it?" Rianae asked.

"That freakish dark wizard who's terrorizing Europe." Tyler replied, "has to be, no one else crazy enough."

Rahkesh bottled his potion, some to turn in and the rest for his own use. Voldemort seemed hell-bent on ending the world. Perhaps he thought he could benefit from total chaos. Once the muggle realized that magic, and all they held as mere fantasy, existed, total chaos would be exactly what happened. He could just see the reaction, anti-magic laws, hunting and killing of anyone suspected of having magic. The muggle reaction would not be good. They were only human, and most humans were mob like and hated what was different.

And once the muggles attacked everyone Voldemort would have a perfect case for attacking back and taking control of all muggles. Which fit his plans perfectly.

But where did the other magical beings come in? Exterminate them? Surely Voldemort would not be likely to accept them as equals. What did he want with them? Voldemort would settle for nothing less than complete control, but did he really think he could stand up to the best the fae, vampires, elves, and werewolves could show? Surely not. And if he thought that then he was delusional.

And that delusion could cost humanity its existence. Rahkesh had followed up on what Rianae had said about the elves and extermination, and she had a point. During the time of Atlantis they had killed off some ten million humans in twenty-four hours, all because someone had said they couldn't. If Voldemort got the magical beings other than humans involved he and his army wouldn't last long, and nor would anyone else.

Dinner that night was a quiet affair, besides the upset fae the vampires had all gotten word that a dark wizard was trying to get them to ally with him. The news that he offered protection and a place amongst his people once they ruled the muggles was of great interest to the young vampires. Except for Daray and Silas, who shrugged it all off and ignored the entire thing. And Rianae who refused to even consider allying herself with a mortal wizard who wanted to rule the world and enslave all muggles, and get rid of muggleborns simply because of blood.

"I tell you, the next few years are going to be one real pain in the ass." Daray complained as they walked back to their rooms, passing groups of chattering students. "Especially if anyone joins that dark wizard."

"Wouldn't that be a decision that all the vampire alumni made together?" Rahkesh asked. The Akren alumni were pretty well organized.

"Maybe. Most of the alumni are very high ranking vampires. And many of them keep muggles as slaves. And I expect that the existence of vampires will be revealed to the world sometime within the decade, and don't tell anyone I told you that." Daray said.

"They're really going to do that?" Rahkesh asked.

"Yes. It has already been decided. They've been planning for years. Once they let it be known we exist they'll already have laws ready so that the muggles can't try to outlaw or exterminate us." Daray explained.

"How?"

"Several thousand vampires donated the last fifty years of their lives to becoming "muggle" politicians and social/religious leaders. In disguise. It'll be a nasty wake-up for the muggles."

"That is really going to shake up the muggle world."

"Yep. Once we're part of muggle society it won't be long before the werewolves, fae, and magical people make their presence known."

"I can't say I'm looking forward to the turmoil." Rahkesh said honestly, really, he had enough to deal with.

XXXX

"We're going to be late for the duel." Silas complained as he and Rahkesh hurried down the hallway.

"I know, I know, not my fault Sygra was being fussy about not coming." Rahkesh said. A vampire had challenged Ally to a duel, and he was looking forward to seeing him get ripped to shreds.

"You could have just left the snake." Silas complained. "If she wants to freeze on the balcony that's her problem."

Rahkesh rounded a corner in the hallway, and stopped as he nearly ran into someone standing in front of him. There was a large crowd gathering around. Levitating himself Rahkesh saw that Ally was fighting with a vampire, the two casting hexes and curses at each other. The students closest had shield up to stop the spells from harming anyone else.

"I thought the duel was in the gym." Silas said, levitating himself beside Rahkesh to see.

"That's not the one she was supposed to be fighting." Rahkesh said.

The vampire jumped in close and tried to bite Ally. Ally dodged aside and nearly took his eye out with a throwing star; it got stuck in the wall instead.

"Oh come on, I'm sure you can do better than that!" Ally taunted as she parried a few attacks and forced the vampire to duck low to avoid a ripping curse.

"Pathetic human." The vampire snapped back and attacked again. Ally laughed and redirected his spells right back at him.

"That's it Geri! Show the little upstart!" A vampire who appeared to be the brother of the one Ally was fighting shouted. Ally cast a castration hex at him, which was absorbed by the shield.

"That's the guy she had the duel with." Rahkesh said, nodding to the watching vampire.

"Then what's his brother doing?" Silas wondered.

The brother who she was fighting, attacked, hurling curses. Ally conjured a shield to absorb them.

Unfortunately the vampire had expected that, and sent out a lumos spell, which, when got caught in the shield and doubled in brightness. With the light of the spell temporarily blinding Ally the vampire knocked her into the wall and clamped a hand over her throat. The watching brother started laughing. Ally spat at him.

"Can't fight me yourself? Gotta ask you brother to do it for you?" Ally gasped out at the second vampire. Beside Rahkesh Silas tried to move forward, Rahkesh pulled him away.

"Just watch, she knows what she's doing." The vampire Ally had been speaking to turned red and started pushing through the crowd. Clearly he didn't take insults well. Rianae moved in front of him, glaring him down. He dodged around her and tried to attack. Rianae grabbed him and pulled him back.

"Oh, Drew darling, can't stand up for yourself at all eh? And embarrassment to the vampire species you are!" Ally taunted.

"You mortals, the only thing your good for is your blood, or fucking, you're all just whores." He sneered back at her. The vampire holding Ally tried to bite her neck.

Then they vanished.

The entire crowd gasped in shock as both of them vanished into thin air. Rahkesh started to laugh, drawing shocked looks from everyone. That had been done on purpose. No one else had noticed, but he had seen the syringe Ally had had pressed to the vampire's neck. And he had seen her touch the portkey in her bracelet.

"The portkey?" Silas asked from beside him, Rahkesh stopped laughing long enough to answer.

"Yeah, hers. And she had that syringe of acid on him." Silas began to laugh too.

"That last comment must have pissed her off. He's probably dead already." Rianae said, throwing a blasting hex and Drew, sending him rolling down a staircase. "Stupid brat, he is an embarrassment."

"What portkey?" Tyler asked.

"Ally's got this portkey, it takes her to the entrance to the valley." Rahkesh explained.

"Ahh." Tyler said, "he _is_ dead then." From the entrance to the valley it was only a few steps to get outside the wards, where killing was possible.

Ally got back during dinner. Everyone had been eating, and discussing the fight, when the door banged open. Silence swept through the dining room as she walked in, carrying the vampire's head by the hair. His blood was splashed all over her, and dripping from the head as she walked.

Students farther away stood up to get a better view as she walked across the dining room, and dropped Geri's head onto his brother plate.

"Got anything else to say?" Ally barked in his face. The vampire just sat, staring in horror at his brother's head, which had been ripped from its body. "I didn't think so!" Ally roared, and walked out of the room.

There was a long silence, and then Rahkesh and Tyler began to clap.

XXXX

Rahkesh watched the customers out of the corner of his eyes while Mr. Dowchin inspected the Yeck fur. The Yecks did not like high winds, so he had gone during a storm to collect some of the fur. It had all been washed in the reactive potions he'd found, and Rahkesh was exerting all the telepathic pressure he could to make Mr. Dowhcin not check too thoroughly. The gloomy until little shop was filled with strange pickled creatures and things Rahkesh would never feel comfortable throwing into a cauldron – human fetus brains and a virgin's eye, who came up with these ideas? And he really didn't want to know the sources.

Mr. Dowchin was a balding grey haired man with a nasty scowl, a missing front tooth and a truly ugly scar down his face. And the customers didn't look much better. Rahkesh watched as the man at the desk handed a banshee a bag, at least the place was clean, the man wiped down the countertop after she left…the counter top had her finger prints on it!

Suddenly it clicked - how the assassins had found him; his fingerprints. He obviously wasn't the only wizard to think of using them. And he hadn't worn gloves on his previous visits. Anyone could get his fingerprints, they were everywhere in his dorm room. And then they'd just have to grab up fingerprints from every surface in Diagon and Knockturn Alleys. Eventually he would show up. An excellent strategy. And that cloth the man was using, it was magical, it collected things. Rahkesh reached further mentally, but realized that if anyone in the room was telepathically sensitive they would feel him checking the magic on the cloth. He couldn't know for sure but he would bet that it collected fingerprints. And if they hadn't found him here he had gone to the Diagon Alley potions shop and the pet shop three times on previous visits, anyone could have tracked him.

Glad he was wearing gloves Rahkesh wandlessly summoned all hair from his robes that might fall to the floor, and blurred the prints of his boots. He'd made one mistake, it wasn't happening again. The assassins wouldn't have told anyone – they wouldn't want competition for him, and they wouldn't want to tell the person offering the money unless they had him, least that person(s) get him themselves and not have to pay. So long as he didn't make anymore mistakes he was safe.

"Very well, same price as last time." Mr. Dowchin growled. Rahkesh accepted the bag with the money in it, checking with wandless magic if it was the right amount, while showing the store keeper respect by not visibly counting it. The man was so magically weak that he wouldn't sense the wandless magic.

Rahkesh left the shop, glanced over the shadow that was following him, and picked out the pub The Dancing Hag that Shacklebolt had recommended as a meeting point.

Kingsley Shacklebolt was waiting in the pub when Rahkesh, disguised as a tall man with graying blond hair in a faded trench coat, found him. Rahkesh slid into the seat across from him and with a wave of his wand sent out a silent spell to extend the shadows around him.

"Nice trick." The auror muttered as the shadows curled over Rahkesh and began to move a little with the torchlight, making him appear amorphous.

"I don't think I'm being tracked by anyone right now, but it never hurts."

"Someone was tracking you before?"

"They were, until they attacked, now they're dead." Rahkesh stated unconcernedly. Shacklebolt raised an eyebrow.

"Dead?"

"Of course. If someone tries to kill me, I kill them. None that silly nonsense about not killing people who are trying to kill you." Rahkesh said, making his position on the issue very clear. There might have been a time when he would have disapproved, there had been – after all he had kept Sirius and Remus from killing Wormtail. But that Harry Potter was long dead. Rahkesh Asmodaeus was not so soft. Even before Akren he'd changed, though he would prefer not to have to kill anyone he wasn't squeamish about killing when he felt it was necessary. Fortunately Shacklebolt slowly nodded, agreeing with him.

"Moody said you'd changed."

"For the better."

"Agreed. Albus would disapprove though."

"Albus is dead. Therefore we don't know what he would have said, but I had my disagreements with Albus before he died anyway. How is the Order?" Rahkesh asked, changing the subject.Shacklebolt shook his head.

"Not well. Voldemort has been attacking too frequently. The Minister of Magic was killed two days ago, and of course Fudge is long dead." Rahkesh nodded, he hadn't known about the Minister's death, but he knew about Fudge of course, though why exactly he had been killed was a good question.

"Voldemort wants to muggle world."

"Yes, it seems so. He won't announce our existence until he has the wizarding world, well, Europe anyway. He's gaining supporters fast, people think he's the best chance they have."

"Hogwarts?"

"There're less than twenty students left at Hogwarts, the school will close next year." Shacklebolt said sadly. Mad Eye Moody, under a hooded cloak, sat down next to him.

"At this point I really don't know what to do." The old auror said grimly, "there's little chance of rallying against him, no one's really acting against him, just talk. Too tired, too confused."

Rahkesh nodded slowly, wondering, not for the first time, if there even was a chance. He had a choice now. Rally the Order and Ministry against Voldemort, or let Voldemort have Europe. He didn't want either, and he was no longer prepared to do what he didn't want to on principle alone. There had been a time when he would have attacked back, but that time was long gone. There had to be another way. But right now he had information for the Ministry.

"Voldemort is trying to get allies among the vampires." He said, both men choked on their drinks.

"Is he bloody mad?" Shacklebolt asked.

"No. And it's a workable tactic. The young vampires are being killed off by the older ones. They want protection, and power over muggles."

"Great. We are doomed." Shacklebolt muttered.

"Not likely, just because the young and foolish join, does not mean they will win." Moody said.

"No," Rahkesh agreed, "it doesn't. And I have it from a good source that certain…powerful elements…in the vampiric community, will not allow them to survive for long." Moody raised one eyebrow, Rahkesh flicked his eyes in acknowledgment; Namach had mentioned a thoroughly terrifying extermination to Rahkesh not two days before.

"So what do I tell them?" Shacklebolt asked, meaning his employers.

"That there are vampires ready to remove any vampires that join Voldemort. They will control their own, and should the Ministry start or support, in any way, any anti-vampire propaganda or laws they can expect the entire wizarding world to receive a similar fate as the unfortunates who are joining Voldemort." Rahkesh said firmly. Shacklebolt stared at him, eyes wide as the implications – that Harry Potter was becoming a spokesperson of sorts for the vampires – sunk in. he let out a long breath and nodded.

"Okay. I'll pass it on."

"I'm trying to help Kingsley, I really am, but Voldemort isn't the only problem the Ministry has. Maybe if they'd done things differently, if society had been different. There's a general exodus of werewolves happening, to other places. But the vampires are too angry at being considered "evil" and "dark", they're sticking it out, and they're very angry." Rahkesh said.

"They won't ever bow to a human." Moody growled.

"Never. But they've been ticked off for decades, and there's a lot of resentment building up, and from what I'm hearing there's enough vampires willing to fight it out." Rahkesh said. Asking Namach for help in tracking down alumni had been a genius idea. While the vampires weren't entirely willing to speak with someone who was still a student and human they hadn't been so put off by being contacted by Rianae and Silas (asking Daray had seemed too much of a risk). Neither of them had been given enough information to know why he was asking. He had simply requested their aid in figuring out what the vampires of North America and Europe thought. Only the European ones were of real interest, but by asking about the general anti-mortal movements afoot in both places he had kept them from being suspicious. Less chance of them making a connection.

"But I thought you said the other vampires wouldn't allow it."

"Won't allow them to aid Voldemort, well, they can't stop all of them, but they'll happily kill any they find. No the general resentment is now centered around the higher-ups who are close to the city masters. Much more dangerous than angry and frightened young vampires." Rahkesh explained. It was a long shot, hoping that the Ministry would try to find something to do that would get the vampires to back off, at least until Voldemort was gone. And there was little the Ministry could do, but he had no other way to help at present. The best he could hope for right now was that the damaged Yeck fur might cause enough of an explosion to kill Snape or a few death eaters.

"I don't know what we can do about the vampires, but assuming that we can get rid of Voldemort the vampires will be on us next?" Shacklebolt asked. Rahkesh nodded, watching as Remus walked into the pub, and found them by scent.

"Afternoon Remus." Moody muttered as the werewolf sat down with them.

"Hi. Everything going alright with you?" Remus asked Rahkesh.

"Just fine. Anything?" Rahkesh asked. He had requested that Remus go to Grimmauld Place, if the werewolf could catch Regulus's scent and match it with Sirius then he had more evidence that Regulus was alive.

"Yes. It is definitely Regulus, whoever was there was male and closely related to Sirius. And you were right about the fox." Remus told them. "I found a surface he'd touched and got the fingerprints." He handed Rahkesh the strip of tape, Rahkesh put it in a bag ith the fingerprints he'd lifted from the rubber duck.

"When I was there I thought that he might have searched the house."

"He did," Remus agreed, "his scent was everywhere, but he was careful to put everything back just right."

"How do you know that?" Moody asked.

Remus smirked, "Because I asked him."

"WHAT?" Shacklebolt yelped.

"Hush. I ran into him, literally. He's been using an invisibility potion." Remus said, Rahkesh immediately began searching around them mentally. He sensed someone trying to hide their mind as he started looking.

"Sit down." He said, speaking to the empty air behind their chairs. Remus moved the chair out and seconds later the paper napkin fluttered as the air moved. "How long does the potion last?"

"Long enough." Regulus whispered. His voice was like Sirius's, only softer and bit lower. "You are the one my brother gave the house to?"

"Yes." Rahkesh agreed. "And if you want it back you're welcome to have it, quite frankly I don't particularly want to have to deal with that place."

"Neither do I. You keep it." Regulus said. Remus snorted softly. Rahkehs pulled out his silver identity authenticator and handed it to Remus. Remus pricked his finger on the pin and pressed his blood to it.

"Remus Lupin." He out it on the table and Regulus repeated what he'd done. The misshapen lump of silver glowed both times.

"Any idea what happened to it?" Moody asked, not bothering to explain what "it" was. Rahkesh and Moody sent up more concealment and silencing charms. Then Rahkesh used a voice mangling charm to project random undecipherable voices, and blurring charm so no one could read their lips.

"No. It vanished from the house." Regulus replied.

"Mundungus Fletcher is out of town still. Has been since last summer." Shacklebolt told them.

"Sounds like he's dead." Moody said.

"What did he do?" Regulus asked.

"Stole things from the house and sold them." Rahkesh said, "he probably found it and sold it to, not knowing what it was."

"If he's dead, it could be anywhere." Regulus muttered, "I was planning on getting a few of the others and destroying them at once."

"Why didn't you get the others?" Remus asked.

"I couldn't. Dumbledore got one, the ring, I got the locket, it's gone, and Nagini I've never been able to get near – I tried – that was how I left the death eaters." Regulus explained.

"Do you know the identities of the others?" Rahkesh asked.

"Yes. A cup owned by Helga Hufflepuff. Voldemort always used to keep that with him in his rooms. I don't know where it would be now. Voldemort of course is one. And it's a possibility that Godric Gryffindor's sword is one, but no one knows where that is."

"It's safe at Hogwarts, and we checked, it isn't one." Rahkesh said. He'd been hoping Regulus would know more, but apparently not.

"Rowena Ravenclaw also owned a black unicorn, after its death she kept the horn, but I have not been able to locate any information about what happened to it." Regulus finished. Rahkesh blinked, a unicorn horn?

"How exactly would we go about finding these?" Shacklebolt asked.

"_We_ don't." Rahkesh said, "you and Alastor need to find out if Mundungus is alive. Remus, those werewolf senses may be useful again. The remains of the ring still exist, if you can locate an odd scent to them, it might help." Remus nodded, "perhaps Nagini should be the next target."

"I still have the mark," Regulus said, "I could go to a meeting and attack her."

"There'd be no guarantee she'd be there." Moody pointed out. "And how do you resist the call anyway?"

"I have a house elf, she locks me in a cell whenever he calls." Regulus said softly. The others winced.

"Where have you been since your "death"?" Moody asked.

"Australia. Hiding. When I escaped I transfigured the body of the one sent to kill me into me, and modified the memory of the other one so that he'd go back and say I was dead. Then I hid. I came back as soon as the Prophet arrived saying that Dumbledore said Voldemort was back. I already knew the location of the locket; I saw him hiding it. I got it as quickly as possible, put the fake there for laughs. Then I went after the ring, but Dumbledore got there first."

"About finding the others?" Shacklebolt asked, brining the conversation back on track.

"It will be a few years before I get enough into soul magic to help with that. But my Necromancy training could start sometime next year, if I really push it." Rahkesh said.

"Necromancy? Soul magic?" Regulus asked, "where are you learning that?"

"Nowhere you need to know about." Moody growled, at all three of the others.

"But-" Shacklebolt began.

"No." Rahkesh said. "I know a few who are very well versed in both arts, but no one I'd trust enough to tell this too. Maybe that will change." It wasn't that he didn't trust Namach. It was just that he knew the vampire would use it to push the human governments into agreements that, while they looked good for the vampire species, would later be discarded when the Minsitry decided that they had been forced into agreeing. Then the vampires would be angry at the humans going back on their word, and there would be war. That was coming anyway, but he wasn't going to help. Professor Xanthius, and Headmistress Aelfly, could help, but he didn't trust Xanthius father than he could throw him, and he didn't know Aelfly.

"Some alumni?" Rahkesh asked Moody.

"You know the survival rate for humans who attempt soul magic, the survival rate for Necromancy is better, but not a whole lot. Creating Inferi is low level necromancy, nothing too difficult. Creating Horcruxes is low level necromancy, again, nothing special. Learning to scan large sections of the world for necromancy of the sort that creates horcruxes? That is much more difficult." Moody growled.

"What if we asked them though?" Rahkesh persisted.

"We could, we could. My concern is that Voldemort may have hired some of them in the past to hide his horcruxes from just the sort of scan you'd want to do. And the ones that know necromancy and soul magic don't do that sort of thing; they bring back murder victims to help find the killers."

"But we _could_."

"Yes, I guess," Moody said grudgingly. "But as the number of horcruxes goes down the power used to protect the remainder will increase. Because he won't have to put so much effort into protecting all of them the less horcruxes there are the more soul magic and necromancy goes into each one. And, Rahkesh, the alumni would all use their ability to help to further a political agenda." Rahkesh sighed and nodded, okay they'd have to leave the almuni out, but it was always an option. Maybe he could find alumni with political goals that matched his.

"Kingsley and I will work on Fletcher, Remus I'm sure you have thing to do trying to keep the werewolves out of this. Regulus you've got to be careful, if Voldemort has any idea you're alive…" Moody left it at that.

"I'll let Tonks know about Fletcher. I've got some other I trust too, I'll tell them he's part of a possible burglary investigation." Shacklebolt said.

"What would be nice would be to start taking out his death eaters." Rahkesh mused. "I won't have the chance for a few months, but if I knew who to go after then. I know some people who would not be against the idea of tracking them down."

"Vampires, always looking for blood. I know a few who own mortal slaves, perhaps they would be interested in nabbing a few death eaters." Moody mused. Rahkesh laughed at the way Remus and Shacklebolt winced. Yes, and next time he saw Mariah he'd bring it up. He could just imagine the "superior" pureblood death eaters reaction to being dragged off as slaves to the vampires.

Shacklebolt and Moody left together, followed in a few minutes by Remus and Regulus (who was still invisible). Rahkesh sighed and leaned back in his chair. He waited until a gust of wind blew out the nearest candles, and then raised his glass towards the shadow that had been following him since he left the potions shop.

The vampire nodded his head slightly in return. Having followed Rahkesh and listened in on the conversation. Rahkesh summoned another draft to come through the partly open door. The vampire, an Akren alumnus who belonged to the master of London, took the opportunity to leave unnoticed.

Daray had recommended him when Rahkesh had mentioned wanting to contact some alumni back home, just to see what the vampiric world in Europe was like. He was friend of the Ateres family and supposedly trustworthy.

Rahkesh let out a long breath and stared at his reflecting in his drink. Brining the vampires into this was dangerous. But he had to get in contact with them at some point. Andrew Farov was a master at mind magics, one of the best. And he reported directly the master of London, who was also a former student of Akren. Rahkesh was taking a chance by trusting both of them, but the chance of having…acquaintances, if not allies…was enough to make him do it. He would channel information from them tot he Ministry for now, it was a way to keep involved. He could expect to be contacted soon about the idea of getting some alumni to help find the horcruxes soon. And a list of those who would be taken with the idea of getting human slaves while bringing down Voldemort at the same time. And perhaps about Fletcher as well.

XXXX

"Next year is going to be horrible. I can't imagine being home schooled. Gran is great and all, but I'm not sure I'd want to spend the whole year with her, thought that ended when I went to Hogwarts." Neville said dejectedly.

Rahkesh wondered if perhaps Neville would do well at Akren. He might. He was tolerant and curious, and a genuinely nice nonambitious person. And while the violence might have troubled him at one point Neville had changed. Rahkesh could sense that just by talking to him.

"You're still really into herbology." Rahkesh observed as Neville knelt to remove weeds from around the base of a plant that appeared to be growing orange feathers. They were in the greenhouses at Longbottom Manor. Neville had hundreds of plants all over the grounds and greenhouses.

"Yeah. And as good as professor Sprout is, she just doesn't know enough. I'd like to get a mastery at herbology, or maybe healing, but for that I'd have to find a master to apprentice to.

Rahkesh hummed softly. Watching with great interest, the plants seemed to respond to Neville's presence. He would do very well at Akren. But for the competitiveness. And the fact that he'd have to really get good at self defense, if only to keep the vampires form drinking his blood.

"You learned that list of spells I gave you?"

"Yes. And I've been working on stuff outside of class too." Neville said.

Rahkesh nodded, and decided to have a talk with the herbology teachers. Perhaps Neville would do okay. Herbology wasn't nearly as rough as things like bloodmagic and dueling.

"How are the others doing?"

"Upset with you. But I think Ginny's coming around. She didn't seem angry last time they talked about your disappearance. Ron and Hermione are still ticked, and still trying to find you." Neville told him. Rahkesh nodded, he had dropped off his letter to Fluer in person, leaving it on the doorstep, she would be able to tell him more about the Weasleys. And he was hoping that he might be able to count on her family as allies.

"The DA?"

"Home schooled mostly. A few went abroad. And some are still at Hogwarts. All the Slytherins are gone though, except for the neutral ones. They're being home schooled with special tutors. Getting ready to join Voldemort." Neville sounded depressed.

"Yeah, I don't know what we're going to do about him."

"Using the press to get people to stand up to him might help." Neville suggested. Rahkesh thought about that. Perhaps it was time he wrote to the Daily Prophet, or the Quibbler.

"Unfortunately he isn't our only problem." Rahkesh said.

"What?" Neville asked.

"The other magical beings are getting involved, and they're not happy with the way they've been treated. Vampires, werewolves."

"I think I'd be angry too. Werewolves are automatically criminals and vampires are inherently evil. If I were them I would have gotten pissed off long ago." Neville said. "Any chance they'd help us fight Voldemort?"

"Not likely. But there's always a chance." Rahkesh said. "Have you tried to find someone to help you get the herbology mastery and to teach you healing?"

"Madam Pomfrey offered to help teach me healing, and Sprout can help with the herbology, but she doesn't have a mastery at it." Neville said. Rahkesh nodded, wondering again. If he talked Neville into coming to Akren Neville would either have to graduate or die. And Rahkesh didn't want to lose his friend. But if Neville adapted well to Akren, he'd be one of the world's best herbologists and healers. And Rahkesh didn't forget that fighting can only go so far. Good healers would be needed.

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Please review. Yes I am going somewhere with all the war ideas.

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	25. Chapter 25

Many apologies for the late update – IT WASN'T MY FAULT – internet connection died for five days, very upsetting, suspect government conspiracy.

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As always I'll answer a few reviewers (randomly selected).

Lily – I will consider that pairing for my alternative version of this story (which will not be written until this version is done)

Kira Bartholomew – Same message as for Lily, I like both ideas.

Mephesto – there are reasons why Rahkesh would not want to become a vampire. They will become more obvious later on (his next year of schooling).

Shakai – there is a reason why Rahkesh hasn't felt anything from his scar, will be made apparent during his summer adventures.

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Chapter 25

It hit him out of nowhere; a raging vortex of magic that threw him off his horse and tumbling off the trail and down the mountainside. Rahkesh was vaguely aware of curling up to protect his head - then the magic attacked his mind. His mental shields were ripped apart as if they didn't exist and the foreign magic swept through.

His bloodmagic reacted, he could feel his skin burning as the power they channeled began to become visible and the runes began to glow. Sparks of magic darted through his body and across his skin, fighting uselessly against whatever was attacking him.

Whatever it was wrapped around his mind, separating him from his body, and then he felt it like the claws of some beast, shredding his magic.

Dimly he was aware that he was screaming and thrashing helplessly as he tried to fight off something that wasn't attacking him physically but magically. It felt a hundred times worse than the cruciatus curse and he felt his body, unable to handle the magical overload, start retching.

Many miles away the professors, and some students, of Akren Mountain School of Magic felt a great disturbance washing across their senses.

Rahkesh fought back, struggling against whatever was holding his mind captive. He struck again and again, trying to break free. Even half-insane with agony he still fought intelligently, never hitting the same place twice, searching for any weakness.

Gradually he became aware, through the blinding pain, that there were many presences, and they were searching his magic for something, and one of them wasn't quite as strong as the others. Rahkesh felt for that being's spot in the wall around his mind and attacked, crashing against foreign inhuman magic.

Whatever, whoever, was attacking him spread out, taking over his magic and trying to invade his mind. That last was enough shatter whatever control over his magic Rahkesh had left. _No one_ was going to get into his mind, not after all the effort he had gone through to keep his identity and his secrets hidden.

Rahkesh channeled everything into an attack at one spot in that weaker presence, and felt it snap, and suddenly someone else was screaming as well, and the walls around his mind were crumbling away, setting his mind free to reconnect with his body.

Nearly unconscious Rahkesh now called on everything he had to throw whoever was attacking him away. As it had that day Diagon Alley, and the day the dragon had attacked him, and when the fae had attempted to put him into a coma, his magic responded.

The magical reaction set the ground shaking visibly, trees toppling, boulders rolling and avalanches cascading down the mountainsides. All around him the entire mountain range that surrounded Akren seemed to convulse, magically, and shake. The rocky treeless mountain tops crumbled apart, chunks of rock the size of mansions falling apart and dropping hundreds of feet. Cliffs fell off the mountains and a winter's worth of snow let loose and swept down into the valleys.

In her office Nvara Aelfly raised on delicate eyebrow at the magical disturbance and the shivering earth, and calmly tapped one of the glowing milky white orbs on her desk.

"Please tell me this is just another of your experiments gone wrong Tristan." She said politely, not the least bit panicked or worried.

"No. It's outside the valley, I can feel the presence of fae magic, but I sense a bloodmagic component to it too. I'm going to check it out. Contact Xanthius will you, tell him to meet me out there." Namach replied. The headmistress tapped another orb.

"Xanthius."

"Yes I felt it." The elf professor replied before she could ask, "I'm on my way out." Satisfied that her staff would handle whatever it was Aelfly cut the link and went back to sorting applications from prospective students.

Ripped apart by the foreign magics being channeled into his body Rahkesh lost any control over his magic and it went wild, thrashing as if in a seizure and attacking the foreign magics until they drew back and fled.

Then he was alone, his attackers gone. Rahkesh's vision blurred and went grey and he began to vomit helplessly as his body started to shut down from the overload. He was shaking uncontrollably and he could feel excruciating pain spreading from his left leg, he'd broken something in his fall down the mountain.

Then the presences were back, this time gentle, he felt the dimmest magic sweeping over his shattered mental shields, trying to calm him. Rahkesh attacked, striking out wildly, the magic vanished.

- Easy young one, be calm, we will not harm you - . The voice was in his mind! Rahkesh panicked at hearing the voice inside his head and promptly sent a blast of memory of a cruciatus curse to surround the presence. There was a pained cry and it vanished. Immediately other presences returned, trying to speak with him telepathically. Rahkesh fought, dimly aware that he wasn't being rational but too frantic to care.

-Stay out of my MIND!- He screamed, his voice sounding hoarse even telepathically. His body was going numb and the shaking was getting worse, there was blood on his hands, from his leg and his bleeding nose, and blood from the cuts made in his palms with his fingernails. There was blood running down his back and his back hurt horribly. He was in no state for the physical fight, but he could manage magically.

-Stop it child, if we wanted you dead-

-Get the fuck away from me!- Rahkesh shouted, trying to attack the mind of whoever it was, smashing up against impermeable walls. Rahkesh heard a mental sigh, exasperated. He shut down his mind as far as he could while still remaining conscious. Now he could feel nearly a dozen telepathic presences trickling across his senses, trying to talk to him, Rahkesh blocked them out and sent waves of acidic, painful magic at them when they got to close.

Magic surrounded him, then he felt everything shift, swirling colors and spinning air. Rahkesh opened his eyes.

He was surrounded by darkness; he couldn't see the floor, the walls, or the ceiling, not even his own hands in front of him.

"We had not intended to harm you." Someone said in a soft wispy voice.

"Right. Not." Rahkesh growled.

"We were testing your magics. We had not anticipated your mental walls being so substantial, or so strangely constructed."

"Why the FUCK are you testing my magics?" Rahkesh barked.

"You have shown unusual powers. Power no human should have. This was a new voice, louder than the first, with a strange lilt to it. Power no human should have. What? Rahkesh thought about it, and then remembered what Namach had told him after he had thrown off the fae's curse.

"We were merely examining your magic, we've never had such a reaction before." Another being said.

"Well if I have powers that no human should have it's a pretty safe bet my magic is a bit different from the norm, genius." Rahkesh snapped.

"No need to be rude."

"No need to be rude? No need to be rude? I'll give you rude!" Rahkesh roared, unable to believe what he was hearing. He lashed out again, screaming in pain as magic flooded out of him.

The uncontrolled magical attack forced them back, and Rahkesh felt himself fall face forward into the snow. He hadn't actually gone anywhere.

The presences returned, but then they halted, not contacting, not leaving, blocked by something. Rahkesh felt a firm hand on his shoulder rolling him over. He blinked snow away and opened his eyes.

Namach was kneeling beside him, while Professor Xanthius was drawing glowing symbols in the air with on finger. Answering symbols appeared from nowhere in response. Xanthius read them, then brushed them aside irritably and began writing again.

"Don't use your magic," Namach told him softly, "it's been overstressed." He stopped and backed off as Rahkesh tried to get up, and promptly collapsed with a cry when his leg gave out, and then started vomiting again.

"Xan, tell them to get the hell out of here, now." Namachdemanded. Professor Xanthius nodded and waved away the writing that was appearing, he raised one hand and sent magic after the vanishing letters. Rahkesh dimly felt a connection being established, and then was nearly shocked out of his skin at the scream of pain that emanated from empty air. Unable to close off his telepathy he felt the elf professor shoving the fae away and closing them off, then ripping into their magics, despite what must be an immense distance, and setting up blocks _within_ their magic to stop them from trying again. The fae protested violently, but professor Xanthius brushed their attacks aside like he would a fly and continued despite the furious and desperate cries.

Seeing that Rahkesh was distracted by not being able to shut out the mind magic fight going on the vampire professor took the opportunity to set the bones in his leg. Rahkesh nearly fainted as the shards of broken bone slid back into place, and were fused back together magically.

"Kill you to use a pain relieving charm?' he hissed between gritted teeth when he could think again.

"You can't handle having that much magic working on you right now. And given the way a magically overload can change the body chemistry a potion is a very bad idea." Namach replied apologetically, casting cleaning and mending spells on him to remove the blood and vomit.

Professor Xanthius growled in annoyance as the fae began protesting their treatment again, and, magically, punched them, with a wave of one finger. Rahkesh felt the edges of the magic racing across his mind, and blacked out.

-

He woke lying on his bed in his rooms. Ally was sitting in one of the armchairs, stirring a cauldron set up on a box to keep the flames off the carpet. Daray, in full demon form, was being demon-like - and was stretched out _on_ the thick, carved stone railing before the glass windows that opened onto the balcony.

The first thing that registered was how odd it was that the vampire wasn't on the couch.

Rahkesh tried to sit up, and felt his head spin and his vision blurred. He ignored it and pulled the pillow up behind him to lean on. After a few moments he could see again, but it would obviously be some time before he could attempt walking.

"How do you kill a fae?" He asked. Someone laughed softly, Daray grinned, showing a set of nasty fangs, and Ally smirked.

"I think Xanthius got there first." Namach said, from the couch, apparently he had usurped Daray's usual place. Which would explain why Daray was scowling at him and his tail was lashing like an irritated cats.

"What was up with that?' Rahkesh asked, his throat felt raw and he dropped his voice to a whisper.

Namach rose and walked across the room holding an open book with a bloodmagic rune, drawn in blood, probably his own, on the cover. "Elves and fae don't get along very well. He didn't kill them but they're probably in pretty rough shape magically."

"Those really were the fae then? How did they do that?" Rahkesh asked.

"Those were the fae elders, and they're easily powerful enough to reach all the way around the planet when they feel like it." Namach told him, handing Ally what appeared to be dried botuber seeds, and sitting on the edge of the bed.

"How'd he fight off all the fae elders?" Rahkesh asked, they were very powerful, but Xanthius had pushed them around as easily as if they were non-magical children.

"I can't answer that." Namach said simply. And Rahkesh realized he would never find out anything from the ancient vampire.

Sygra uncurled from around the headboard and settled on his knees. The snake glared him with narrow eyes and Rahkesh realized he was going to hear yet another round of "you can't take care of yourself so I ought to" from the serpent.

"Why'd they go after me?" Rahkesh asked.

"I warned you that throwing of the curse of an Amadan was likely to attract some high-level attention." Namach said. "And Haedil is the son of one of the tribal leaders. I contacted the fae elders the day before yesterday after we brought you back. Amazingly enough they've taken quite a liking to you and not only apologized but said that they'd like to meet you sometime."

"They didn't apologize to me, so I won't be accepting the invitation. And why do they like me? We barely met." Namach chuckled, Rahkesh got the impression he approved of the decision.

"Apparently they were rather impressed, and whatever they saw when they started sifting around through your soul, they liked." Namach explained with a shrug.

"They did WHAT?" Rahkesh yelped, trying to struggle upright, Namach flicked his fingers, and wave of magic pushed Rahkesh back against the pillows. Searching his _soul_?

"Relax Rahkesh; it's a little late to throw a fit about it. They couldn't get much from your mind, and they couldn't search through your magic either - not for lack of trying mind you – so they did a quick soul reading instead. Which you reacted extremely aversely to."

"That was the understatement of the century." Daray commented, from the couch, now that Namach had left. "The professor of stone magic says that earthquake registered around a 9 on the Richter scale."

"Erm, sorry?" Rahkesh said sheepishly.

"Don't be, Vaeryes broke his nose." Daray told him. Namach pretended he hadn't heard the comment about his colleague.

"Fortunately no one else was out there, and a little vampiric and elven telepathy kept anyone from seeing us return. And with the fae connected to you magically the magic causing the earthquake couldn't be felt as any one individual, nor as a human. And the draconic magic woke up and took part so anyone who's trying to find a source is very confused right now." Namach told him, "Your bloodmagic didn't not react very well."

"Yeah I felt that." Rahkesh muttered.

"The runes you've been doing are designed, subconsciously, so that they can become part of any soul magic or necromancy runes your attempt. As a result they manifest tiny amounts of soul magic. However the draconic magic your started showing didn't mix very well. Your bloodmagic runes have been slightly altered to accommodate the draconic magic and add it to anything else you attempt. Which is why it was so painful. It wasn't a properly prepared ritual, your skin just split along several new sets of runes, altered a few of the old ones."

"Will it affect my magic?"

"You won't notice any major difference in your magic, now that the draconic magic has mixed in it's there to stay. We sent a new set of blood samples to the healers and potions master. I think they'll find some fairly significant changes." Namach said. Rahkesh nodded and closed his eyes, he felt awful, and he didn't need to ask to sense that using magic would be a bad idea. Under the pretext of checking his injured leg and back Rahkesh felt around under the pillow. His tasers were there, and the exploding throwing stars he'd created a week before. The knives Fred and George had given him were in their sheaths attached to the bedposts and the staff given to him by the Chachapoyaro was currently in its spot, invisible, against the ceiling. Ally finished the potion and poured it into a large mug, then banished the rest.

"You'll need to drink all of that over the next few hours, it should help to heal your connection to your magic." Namach told him. Rahkesh wrinkled his nose at the astonishingly purple brew, and then drank some of it. It tasted like sea water, with milk gone bad.

"You'd think, after all the shit that happened to me during our battles with the Inca, I'd get used to this." Rahkesh muttered.

"Perhaps you should try another set of bloodmagic runes to strengthen your bones so they don't break as easily." Daray suggested.

"I'm working on the runes for one. The issue is that added bone strength usually means denser bones, which are heavier, I'm trying not to increase my weight. That makes it harder to fight." Rahkesh explained.

"You're lucky tomorrow is Sunday, by Monday you should be capable of a reasonable amount of magic." Namach said, "try to repair your mind magics a bit. I was going to have Xanthius help with that, but when he tried to touch your mind you went into a seizure and attacked him. Rahkesh blinked, and then nodded slowly, the vampire left, followed soon after by Ally. He knew he would have attacked the elf for trying to read his mind had he been conscious, apparently his subconscious had the same feelings about having other read his mind. That was good.

Rahkesh turned to the remaining vampire and raised an eyebrow. Daray glanced towards the door. A second later Silas came in and shoved his cousin's tail aside so he could sit. Daray hrumphed and transformed.

"I'm guessing you're not sitting around to see how well I'm doing." Rahkesh said dryly.

"No. We wanted to tell you that its started." Silas said.

"What has?"

"At noon today the master of London sent out a warning. There're some three hundred vampires under a century in age gathering around that dark wizard, whatever his name is, Voldemort." Rahkesh groaned, and looked around for a convenient wall to bang his head on. Fae, vampires, dragon blood, and he'd thought his life was complicated _before_ coming to Akren to study.

"Soon enough there'll be a massive war amongst the vampires, and the mortals are throwing themselves in as well, or at least that dark wizard chap in Europe is." Daray said. "Now I know that what happens outside the valley shouldn't affect anyone here, but we all know that bullshit. Most of the vampires here are too young and not useful enough – they can expect to be killed almost anywhere in the world. And that _is_ going to cause problems. We expected this war to come at some point. But the sides have changed with those mortals getting involved and adding another dimension no one anticipated."

"How much do you two expect to be affected?" Rahkesh asked.

"Not a whole lot." Daray answered, "We're a family of assassins and I have a feeling we'll gain from all sides. In fact I expect the family will profit immensely. We can both expect to gain a mastery in bloodmagic, and probably mind magic as well. Silas has a good chance at managing to get a potions mastery before graduation, I'm going into Necromancy and weapons training. And anyone who thinks we're not worthy of survival can take it up with our grandmother, and good riddance."

"Rianae?"

"She's safe enough. Here at Akren no one is likely to kill her. And she's developing a rare talent with thread magic, plus her other abilities. If she were to graduate right now with what she has she'd still have a good chance of living. Any city master would see the benefit of having someone that good with thread magic around. She'll probably manage a mastery in it sometime late next year, so she has little to worry about."

XXX

"I don't know what you did Rahkesh, but it worked rather spectacularly." Moody said as soon as the connection was established.

"Excuse me?" Rahkesh asked, he hadn't done anything recently.

"There was a massive explosion last night, potions lab blew up. The place was a site that we were monitoring as a center of high death eater activity. Whatever blew up in there killed fourteen death eaters. Now what was it?"

"What makes you think I had anything to do with it?" Moody blinked his one eye, and then stared hard at Rahkesh.

"I've become a supplier of rare potions ingredients. Snape was buying stuff so I tampered with it so it would explode. Fourteen dead?" Rahkesh finally admitted.

"Fourteen. And we had to modify over a hundred memories."

"Snape?"

"Not among the bodies, but they're not all identified yet. I expect he somehow got out alive." Moody said. Rahkesh nodded, he had had some small hope to catch Snape in the blast, but fourteen was very satisfactory. Especially since Snape would probably take some of the blame, and subsequent cursing, from Voldemort.

"I guess Nagini being killed would be too much to hope for?"

"Not a chance Voldemort would let his precious horcrux near potions." Moody agreed. "You're…friends…have been asking about you. They want to know what you're doing next year. They'll have graduated, and I think they want to join you or help the Order."

"I haven't spoken with them recently, what is happening?"

"I don't know a lot. Worrying about jobs right now. Hermione is seeking a position at a magical research place. Ron's going to try assisting his dad. Neville is finding something to do with plants I think."

"Sorry I missed it all."

"I imagine you find the crowd at Akren more to your liking."

Rahkesh sighed and nodded, he was long past hoping to reconnect with his friends. Things would never be like they had been. He'd changed too much. And he _liked _the change, enjoyed his new life and his new friends. There was something about what he'd found at Akren, freedom, independence, self-reliance, something else, something that had been missing before. Perhaps it was the ferocious quality of life, whatever it was he wouldn't leave it, couldn't. And no force on earth was going to make him give up Ally, Daray, Silas, Rianae, and, increasingly of late, Tyler. Or the magic, maybe it was the magic that he'd found. Or the lack of rules and restrictions. Kill only when necessary, and possible, and do it well.

"Addictive isn't it?" Moody asked softly, as if he knew exactly what Rahkesh was thinking.

"Yeah. Why'd you give it up?"

"Voldemort. Killed my mother on her vacation. I wanted to help, had the skills, joined the aurors, and met Dumbledore. The rest is history. Once Voldemort was gone I went back, hunted top members of the human slave trade. Never killed, gathered information. Little old for that now."

"The kind of life I'd prefer. Seems I'm more likely to wind up trying to keep world stability between the various magical species. After Voldemort." Moody raised an eyebrow and laughed.

"God help you lad. They'll tear you apart."

"Been trying that. Think I can handle most of them. Back to Voldemort though, Regulus come back yet?"

"Yeah. And Shacklebolt, Mundungus is dead. Suicide in Germany."

"Suicide eh?"

"No one investigated too closely."

"Huh. Horcrux wasn't with him."

"Nah."

"Long shot hope. Regulus?"

"The cup is at the Riddle place. Not the manor. Underground hideout big enough to house a hundred death eaters somewhere on the property."

"Cave system, the place is built on a hill. Perhaps we should look into some creatures that dwell in caves, send a few of them in, and see who comes running out screaming." Rahkesh suggested with an evil grin. Moody chuckled.

"Nice thought. When will you be around next?"

"Not until summer break, things are getting a little hectic. Vampiric war." Moody nodded.

"I've been checking in with my old pals, sounds pretty rough. You contacted Andrew Farov."

"He was a suggested contact if I wanted to meet the vampires back home."

"And advisor to the master of London."

"That too."

"He's known to keep human slaves, preferably male ones."

"I'm aware of that, I'm not pretty enough, young enough, or short enough for him. Can't say I'm worried much, besides Namach eating him there're a few other old ones who I know and who would not approve. Cyala Ateres for one."

"I thought you were joking when you said you were going to wind up working on interspecies connections." Moody said, eyes going very wide at the mention of the ancient matriarch of the Ateres assassins.

"Unfortunately not. The fae elders went and tested my magic, and did a soul reading, a few days ago, nearly killed me. Now they want to meet me in person. I told them they could stuff their offer where the sun doesn't shine until they apologize." Moody flung his head back and howled with laughter.

"I bet they don't hear THAT very often!"

"If the awed looks I'm getting from the ambassadors children say anything, no they don't hear that very often." Rahkesh agreed. The fae Justin and his older sister both attended Akren, and while they didn't advertise just how high placed they were in fae society it was not hard to check the names of the known fae elders and politicians against the list of Akren alumni and current students.

"Regulus and Remus are going to work catching death eaters and questioning them. I'll keep you updated."

"Thanks."

"You should be aware, there's a movement going on to get rid of vampires. That happens every few decades, but this would be a bad time to upset them."

"Thanks, I'll start asking around. We're doomed"

"We were doomed the day some asshole decided werewolves and vampires were dark and evil." Moody corrected him.

Moody closed the link and the sheet went blank. Rahkesh folded it and put it in a drawer. Why hadn't politics been such a big deal at Hogwarts? Life had been much easier then. Realizing that he was calling the worst dark wizard of the last century wanting him dead easy Rahkesh rubbed his eyes and told himself he'd gone completely insane.

XXXX

"First year students do not belong here. The rest of us had to work for years to get into this class, why should they have it any easier?" Rahkesh listened to the werewolf's complaints with half an ear. Some people just didn't get it, at Akren it didn't matter how many years you'd been training; you went where your skill level placed you.

"Oh go read the class placement guidelines." Haedil snapped irritably. After getting over the shock of Rahkesh managing to throw off his curse the black eyed Amadan had stopped complaining about them being in the class. Apparently doing the impossible made a positive impression. The other fae didn't bother him either. And Rahkesh had yet to reply to the fae elder, since they had yet to send him any actual apology. He knew he was being a little too stubborn about it, but he was sure it was making an impression on them.

"Class dismissed, and do go read the placement guidelines Benjamin, I grow weary of your whining." Vaeryes growled, the werewolf left in a hurry. There was not a single rule protecting the students of Akren from their professors if they annoyed them. The class filed out of the room with only a few glares at the three younger students. Daray gave them all the finger and Rahkesh flicked tiny bits of electricity at the glaring student's feet, sending shocks through their shoes and numbing their toes. The three didn't bother hiding their amusement when their classmates tried not to jump at the shocks. Rahkesh ducked as the vampire sitting beside him bumped into his chair "accidentally" and tried to hit the pressure point at the back of his neck. He pressed a taser against the vampire's groin and set off a low burst. The vampire screamed and leaped away, before stumbling to the ground. Daray and Silas made sure to step on his hands as they walked out. Vaeryes ignored the whole thing.

The vampires in their class let Daray be, but Silas had gone home a bloody mess one evening after getting attacked by two of the vampires in their class, after he finished yet another set of runes that increased his healing speed. That had been two days before and one of those two vampires hadn't been in class since. A ruptured spleen, cracked skull and a knife through the appendix was something that even a vampire would take time to heal from. The other vampire had been several years older and much more powerful than Silas, and Silas had still managed to remove one of his eyes. Though Rahkesh suspected that the other vampire had managed to defeat Silas, Silas hadn't said anything and whoever his opponent had been he wasn't bragging much, loosing an eye is not very dignified. And he couldn't claim he'd beaten Silas on his own, so the victory meant little. Since then Daray had kept an eye on his cousin, who didn't appreciate being looked after. Rahkesh had pointed out that all you really needed to win a fight was a very good grasp of the summoning spell. Summoning off a limb or an eye, or blood, would usually give any opponent pause.

Daray had taken to actively hunting down every vampire in Akren, one by one. Starting with the weakest, and drinking their blood as he went. He was intent on attaining a position where none of them would ever bother him, if not being the active leader of the Akren vampire students. Since no one ever admitted to fighting him no one but Rahkesh, Silas, Rianae, and Ally were aware he was doing it. How he kept them all from talking was something Rahkesh had yet to figure out. Rianae and Silas knew, but they refused to say. Something about Ally and Rahkesh probably not approving. Which, according to Ally, meant he was either fucking or cursing them afterwards. Rahkesh opted for both.

Either way it was working fine and Daray used his new position to intimidate the weaker vampires into behaving themselves. And to pick out the best of them and bring them along by training them and arranging opportunities for them to fight and defeat each other, slowly gathering a network of allies (though not friends) who he could rely on.

Rahkesh managed to stay far away from his friend's political maneuvering and concentrated on his studies, and trying to guess where the world was headed. Mostly downhill.

He'd actually had some hope left for his homeland, but the day Justin came into the dining hall waving a copy of the Daily Prophet and shouting to his friends that Europe had banned vampires, Rahkesh realized that things were rapidly getting completely out of control.

"What do you mean, banned vampires?" Caroline, the current alpha-vampire (Ally's term for it) of Akren asked loudly as the dining hall went silent.

"The European countries finally joined up with the others who are banning vampires!" Justin said, copying the newspaper and throwing her a copy. He sat down at the table next to where Rahkesh and his friends were eating and handed them a copy. Rahkesh copied his and sent it on to the next table and soon the hall was very quiet as the students read what had happened.

Some Ministries of Magic Offer Bounties for Vampires – Others Say No

Rahkesh glanced through the article, feeling sick. The dining room was very quiet as the student read the Daily Prophet.

Vampire Bounties are Offered in: United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic,Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Algeria, Morocco, Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, North Korea.

Countries Not Offering Bounties: Spain, Portugal, Ukraine, Romania, Finland, Russia, Mongolia, Japan, South Korea, India, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh.

Other countries are still undecided as vampires, long banned in many places throughout the Middle East and Eurasia, arefinally banned in the United Kingdom and France. Most of the countries not offering bounties for vampires have been long-time supporters of vampire freedom and are clearly being pressured into remaining safety-areas for vampires, despite increasing evidence that the vampires are getting ready to attack humanity.

Just a little dramatic. Rahkesh thought, "attack humanity", they made it sound like the vampires wanted to wipe out the human species, which clearly would not benefit the vampires any. He could just imagine what a fit the old ones in Europe throwing. He was sure Shacklebolt had tried, but the Ministry seemed intent on starting a confrontation. Funny, he had thought the new Minister a bit more intelligent than that. Perhaps it was time to start seriously pushing his old friends to get out of the country, preferably somewhere _far_ away. Like Mexico.

"My Uncle Grath and Aunt Vera took an assignment to find out who is pushing this anti-vampire thing, and kill them." Daray mentioned, folding the paper unconcernedly. "That was a week ago, after the vote for this idea they'll know exactly who to remove." Rahkesh tried to feel sympathetic for his fellow humans, but was not surprised when he didn't feel anything but disgust.

"Good riddance." He muttered, wondering yet again when he'd changed so much. "Make it look like natural death?"

"No, we're blaming Voldemort."

"What are they getting from it?"

"A small herd of black unicorns. Very, very rare. The family owns a lot of land, and now that we've finished acquiring magically removed and hidden land grandmother says it's time to start building up in other areas. Akren owns two black unicorns, the fae own a few herds, but in total there are less than five thousand of them in the world. And even fewer of breeding age, close to fifteen percent of the black unicorns alive today are too old."

"I thought the elves owned them all."

"No, different unicorn species. Black unicorns are, obviously, all black, while the others are all white. The third species is owned exclusively by the elves and no one knows what they look like." Silas corrected. "You're from someplace in Europe, though you refuse to tell us where. I'd suggest you contact your family and friends and tell them to run."

"I did. They didn't listen I'll go back over the next weekend I guess." Rahkesh said. he'd been hoping to finish another piece of bloodmagic and begin growth enchantments on his Dylanos tree. That would have to wait, however difficult their separation making an effort to help his friends and their families came first. Not that they would listen any better now. Ron would probably agree with the bounties being offered. Ron wanted riches, he'd probably be dreaming of becoming a vampire hunter and refuse to believe anything Rahkesh…Harry…said. Maybe Neville and few of the others would hear. Luna. They would know he wouldn't tell them to leave unless he truly believed that they were facing death. Or enslavement, which was probably about as bad.

"You know the European Ministries, what chance do you think they have?" Tyler asked.

"Almost none. The young vampires are helping a wizard who wants to rule the world, the old ones are so angry they're probably causing earthquakes, and the average person there can't fight off a housecat." Rahkesh said, "And the average vampire is tough to kill and knows how to defend him/herself."

"Aren't there old treaties that forbid this?" Ally asked. Rahkesh nodded, he had looked into that when he'd contact Andrew Farov.

"Yes, supposedly vampire can do whatever they please, so long as any humans they kill or enslave attacked the vampires first. And they can only feed on muggles." Rahkesh said, "but the Ministries have been breaking the treaty for decades."

"And they just threw it out the window." Daray said, suddenly starting to grin.

"Which means that there's no agreement, and nothing giving the vampires any pause." Rahkesh said, nodding again , "what's so amusing?"

"If the humans got rid of the only rule stopping vampires from enslaving or killing or feeding on them, perhaps I will take a trip to Europe and go hunting." Daray said, "I've never been there, and it currently seems to the world's best hunting ground. Magical blood and no one to stop you or put up much of a fight."

Rahkesh winced; he had a feeling that many would feel the same way Daray did. There would undoubtedly be a massive influx of vampires. Magical blood was much better than muggle blood, and while most places had agreements going back centuries all of those countries had just freely removed their only protection. Though North Korea had never had any such treaty in the first place. The rest of them were just begging for slaughter.

"And perhaps my mother will let me get a few human slaves now." Rianae said thoughtfully. "She's been against slavery for a long time, but after this…Some really despicable mortal. Maybe two." And Rahkesh remembered how Daray and Silas had gone after the mortals they termed "despicable" while hunting in Brazil.

"Why only the despicable ones?" Ally asked.

"Because you don't enslave people you respect. And you don't feed off of intelligent, rational, useful people. We only go after those we don't like. That's true of all vampires, feeding on a doctor isn't as much fun as feeding on someone who's a racist. It just isn't. Unless the doctor is a racist." Rianae explained. "Personally I have a fondness for those who think vampires are evil, dark, nasty creatures."

Rahkesh gritted his teeth, and decided that he _really_ needed to have a chat with Ron. Not that his friend would listen, but maybe the rest of the family would. Perhaps he should introduce Ron to his new friends, so he could see for himself that vampires weren't horrible, that was the only way Ron was capable of learning. But of course Ron would give away who Rahkesh was…had been…whatever. Then again, if he had to choose, Ron was probably better off as a slave than dead. Not a choice Rahkesh ever wanted to make, but his friend was living in one of the most dangerous places on earth, on the loosing side, and didn't know it.

Ron might be a lost cause, but he was sure his older brothers would listen, and his mother and father. Ron was likely to be the only holdout. Unfortunately he didn't have time to go back that day, he'd have to wait until Friday afternoon. The vampires wouldn't have really started yet by then though. He had a little time.

"Do you think this dislike of vampires and werewolves will spread to the fae?" Justin asked them. Rahkesh choked on his orange juice.

"Yes." He answered, putting down his glass and fork. He hadn't even thought of that. It would spread, of course it would. Centaurs, werewolves, vampires, of course the fae would be next, whether they were any threat or not.

"You realize what will happen if they write laws against fae." Daray said. There were a lot of fae around, though few mortal magic users knew of them at all. Since the wizards and witches were generally oblivious of other species, especially in the places most likely to ban them.

"I'm more worried about what will happen if they write laws against all magical beings." Rahkesh said, attracting the attention of the surrounding tables, "because that would include the elves."

There was a very long silence around the table, and those sitting nearby.

"Looks like the mortals here in Akren might wind up the last of their species." Justin said finally, "sucks to be you."

-

-

Okay have to end it there. I apologize again for the slow update, it wasn't my fault. Can't get a reliable internet connection. Blame the government, blame the aliens, whatever. Personally, I think the tiny little beings that live inside the computer and make it work went on vacation.

-

At some point I'll get around to explaining the difference between the fae and the elves, they are different species. But first _I_ have to decide what the real difference is.


	26. Chapter 26

-sleekwolf18 – I will be considering both those pairings for my alternate version of this story, which will be written _after_ I finish this one.

-nantukoprime – I will NOT be going to Tolkien route. Too common. There will be obvious similarities, but many major differences. I'm not a big fan of Tolkien, or his elves (though they are the best of his characters). No offense to Tolkien fans, don't kill me?

-

Many thanks to everyone who reviewed! Many apologies for any grammar or spelling errors, I only had the time to read it through once, but if I don't post it now I won't have the chance – going away for a few days.

-

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Chapter 26

-

Rahkesh woke to the feeling of something choking him, snapping a hand up to his neck he felt scales and the familiar presence of his pet serpents' magic. The snake had been sleeping on his head, and at some point had wrapped herself around his neck and was slowly constricting around his neck, and it was starting to choke him.

_Sygra, I love you dearly, but if you don't stop choking me I might have to hurt you._

_Ssss you woke me._

_You were choking me._

_Ah, sorry._

_I wasn't aware snakes could have dreams. _

_Foolish mortal, of course we dream._

_And strangle people in their sleep. _

_I already apologized. I had this wonderful fat mouse and-_

_Never mind._

_Why are you awake anyway? It isn't light out yet._

_Extra-long transfiguration class this morning._

_Can I come?_

_No, we're starting animagus transformations._ Sygra hrumphed and unwrapped herself from around his neck, and coiled onto the pillow beside him. Rahkesh rubbed his throat; cobras weren't constrictors, why would Sygra choke him over a dream about a mouse? Looking at his familiar he saw that she was asleep again. At least she hadn't bitten him.

They had an early transfiguration session before breakfast today. And they would every day for the rest of the year so that the professor could monitor any changes in food preferences right after meditation on their forms. This meant waking well before dawn every day until summer break. The vampires, who were always exhausted around dawn as their internal clocks told them to go to sleep, were not happy about "catering to mortal weaknesses". To which the mortals responded that they too would rather be asleep. Apparently Professor Walner had no problem with rising abnormally early.

It was dark, he could see shadows between the trees, fast moving forms, he was moving too; running at a high speed. It was cold, he felt the freezing air in his nostrils, but the cold felt good, it didn't bother him. Slowly everything became darker and darker, and then faded away completely.

Another scene began to appear, he could feel air moving all around him. The sun felt warm on his back and he felt sleepy. His feathers moved with a sharp breeze, he had feathers?

Rahkesh's eyes snapped open just before he unbalanced and fell over. He had been sitting cross-legged and rocked himself upright quickly and looked around. Most of the class was either back already or just starting to come out of meditation. Interesting, in their first meditation on aimagi session they supposed to only contact their form, only one form. But unless he was very confused he had felt two forms. That was not supposed to happen.

Around him everyone was whispering softly about what they had felt, some people were looking very disappointed; they must have not managed it. They were all sitting on mats on the floor, since people had a tendency to become unbalanced and fall over when returning to their body from searching their magic for their animal selves.

"Rahkesh?" Rahkesh turned to see Silas was awake as well, "I think we should wake Daray, I know were not supposed to, but…" Silas trailed off as Daray growled and his skin slowly began to develop a scale-ish pattern. Rahkesh hastily threw an illusion around the vampire, his wand hidden in his sleeve.

"I think we'd better wake him. You do it; he's more likely to recognize your magic." Rahkesh said. Silas began tentatively prodding his cousin's shoulder. Daray's eyes snapped open; they were orange/gold and starting to glow.

"Daray, ixnay emonday." Silas muttered to his growling cousin. The orange glow vanished from Daray's eyes as he blinked, and Rahkesh dropped the illusion that had been keeping anyone from noticing.

"Sorry, every time I try I only get the demon." The vampire said, "never mind, I'm supposed to wait for the results from the potions masters and mind masters before trying anything to do with animagi anyway."

"How is it going?" Professor Walner asked. Seeing that all three had come out of meditation. Most of the rest of the class had finished as well; the first session was not designed to be long.

"It was remarkably easy to find my animagus self, but I haven't the foggiest notion of what it is." Rahkesh replied, deciding not to mention that he might have found two forms rather than the one he should have found.

"Where were you?"

"Running, somewhere cold, but the cold didn't bother me." Rahkesh replied.

"So your animal can run - how many legs?"

"I couldn't really tell, four I think. I could feel my feet on cold ground. It was very cold, it felt good. I could smell everything; the world was made of smells. There was singing too." Rahkesh said, trying to remember. "So it must be an animal with at least four legs that can run and has fur or scales to keep it warm in cold weather and it prefers the cooler climates. It has a very good sense of smell." Professor Walner nodded, smiling, and turned to Silas.

"Uh, lots of really weird psychedelic colors and sand?" Silas said, he shrugged and ducked his head when even Professor Walner looked at him oddly. "I don't even know if it _has_ legs."

"It must have very different vision then. Size?"

"Erm, no idea. Really weird colors. I think it was venomous, don't know where that impression came from." Silas said, shrugging.

"Daray, the other professors and I decided that you should wait until we can find a time to meet with professor Namach and one of the mind magic masters. It is likely that your second form is overpowering anything else, it's the same problem werewolves tend to have, only different since no one knows much about demons." Professor Walner said. Daray nodded and growled again once she was out of earshot.

"Relax Daray, maybe you'll never manage another form. That could be a good thing, you have one violent and powerful form, what if the second form is its opposite? Like a fluffy white rabbit?" Rahkesh asked, grinning evilly as Silas snickered at the horrified look on his cousin's face.

"Grandmother would kill me for being an embarrassment to the family." Daray said.

"I just hope my form isn't something Nuri might feel inclined to eat." Silas said, "that would be a problem."

XXXX

"But do you think it could have been because of the dragon blood?" Rahkesh asked. Mariah was back; she and Namach had called him in to see them to discuss his animagi training. Rahkesh had just finished explaining to them that he'd somehow gotten images from two forms, instead of one.

"Rahkesh, in this case, anything is possible." Mariah told him.

"It is very likely that the four-legged form is your first one. However the dragon's blood has decided that it prefers the one with feathers, probably because it flies. The dragon's blood is fighting what your magic is sending you, because it and your magic favor different forms. I think you'll find that you won't be able to do the first form until you've satisfied the draconic magic." Namach said.

"So I work on one form in class and one on my own?" Rahkesh asked.

"Yes, but I think you should have someone else present when you're trying that, if only because of how complicated this is. And you should ask the headmistress to observe when you try to transform. After all she had four forms completed and is working on a fifth and sixth simultaneously." Namach suggested.

"She knows about what happened?" Both vampires stared at him, "never mind, of course she does." Rahkesh sighed, he didn't have any choice but to trust the headmistress, and, really, if he couldn't trust Nvara Aelfly then whom could he trust? Most of the students at Akren had secrets, and she was supposed to know and look after all of them. And unlike Dumbledore she didn't meddle at all, but was happy to help if asked. And she _was_ the only living being (of any species) to ever manage four animagus forms, and was working on a few more.

"Part of what I do, Rahkesh, is to try to trace the dragon lineages genetically. I took some samples from the few bones we have that are from the species I believe your dragon to be, and compared them to your blood. That is the reason we called you here actually, your blood is changing, it is becoming remarkably dragon-like." Mariah said, interrupting his thoughts.

"What does that mean?" Rahkesh asked.

"It means that you blood is developing an ability to clot, in injuries only, much faster than even bloodmagic could enhance it to. You'll probably never have to worry about any blood-related diseases, or your cholesterol. It will probably also be flammable, when you want it to be. We couldn't test that, but it seems very likely."

"That will be of great value to you once you start the most difficult bloodmagics and necromancy and soul magic." Namach added approvingly, he looked delighted. "Ordinarily people have to inject liquid fire into them and magically bind it to their blood; most of them die in the process. You can skip that step."

"It also means that you cannot right now be identified by DNA testing. Your DNA is changing. It will probably finish the change within a year, and will be very different from what it was when you first arrived at Akren."

Rahkesh felt a wave of joy at hearing that, even more to separate him from Harry Potter. If he could only get rid of the scar, he would be unidentifiable as the Boy Who Lived. Perhaps it was odd to be obsessed with getting rid of yourself, but Rahkesh didn't regard Harry Potter and himself as the same person anymore, apart from his connection to Voldemort. A dangerous mindset but one he couldn't really help. He wasn't comfortable in Harry Potter's skin anymore. Mariah was talking again.

"It may also magically charge your brain. We don't really know what the effects of that will be." Mariah added. "There have been experiments done with adding magic to the brain, but it was always from an outside source and the subjects didn't do very well, this is internal. It may make it nearly impossible for creatures like dementors to remove your soul, and it could be used to repair brain damage. Those were the two results the experiments showed, but again this different; it probably won't nearly kill you to try that. The best-case scenario would be that you could get some actual conscious control of the signals your brain sends to your body, which would be invaluable. There is also the possibility of channeling magic through your new blood into your magically charged brain to enhance things like memory and the speed with which your brain works."

"That sounds awfully risky to attempt." Rahkesh said, though no more risky than attempting bloodmagic on himself in the room of requirement, or drinking dragons blood, or attacking a basilisk.

"But the pay off if it is possible would be tremendous." Namach pointed out, "but you're not even trying that until after the change is completed and you have some rudimentary necromancy down as well as that animagus form. The experiments with brains and magic showed that the people often tended to sink into their souls and to the edge of the death, knowledge of necromancy and some beginnings of a connection with death could help you avoid, or exploit, that."

"This is so exciting, years from now my colleagues are going to be extremely jealous, I get to study someone who drank dragon's blood." Mariah said, making it sound like a gift from god. Namach laughed. Rahkesh had to smile at the ancient's excitement, for a dragon researcher this probably was the chance of a lifetime. Since, after all, she wasn't the one going through an unkown magical metamorphosis.

"By the way, have your food preferences changed at all?" Namach asked.

"No, but I've been feeling a strong inclination to go bask in the sun." Rahkesh said, Sygra had found that very amusing. He wasn't sure what it meant, since most dragons were not cold blooded and according to Mariah cloud forest dragons were among the first species to be warm blooded.

"One of the things the more magical species of dragon can do is to feel the intentions of a spell, they don't know what the spell is but they can tell what it is going to do. Now most humans can teach themselves to do that but if the draconic magic really starts showing itself you should quickly develop that ability." Mariah said. "I've spoken with Xanthius, he'll search the elvish archives the next time he gets back to their realm. He's working with Daray and the healers right now. It might take him a little while to get to the archives though, they're rather busy right now; someone tried to break into their realm."

"What sort of idiot would try that?" Rahkesh asked. "And why?"

"Someone with a death wish, and I suspect it was an agent of this Voldemort character in Europe." Namach answered, "and as to why - the only Dyalnos trees in the world are in the elf realm. And they'll fight to the death to keep it that way."

-

Rahkesh closed the door to his rooms and leaned against it, running Namach's last words through his mind again and again. The only Dyalnos trees in the world were in the elf realm…but that wasn't true. He had one. And there were seeds for several more in the Potter family vault, though some of those had been moved to his new vault. Namach had implied that the elves protected their Dyalnos forests viciously, what would happen if professor Xanthius found out he had one?

"You look like you're thinking unsettling thoughts."

Rahkesh frowned at the vampire on his couch, but was too worried to bother electrocuting him again. "Maybe." He answered, opening the door as Rianae, Silas and Ally appeared outside.

"Daray, you look like hell." Silas said in shock. His cousin's skin was pasty gray color and he looked like a day-old corpse. Rahkesh blinked and realized that Daray's magical aurora, usually very strong, was almost non-existent.

"I soon as I'm feeling better I'm going to kill Xanthius, that goddam elf decided to see whether I was capable of shifting into the demonic plane of existence. I told him that I had the demon's body, not its soul, but would he listen? No. Bastard nearly got me killed." Daray grouched, looking barely capable of killing a fly.

"I'd suggest waiting a few years to try to kill him, it might take you that long to recover." Rahkesh said. "He started doing experiments with plane shifting and your soul?"

"Yes. Fucking hurt." The vampire muttered.

"What else are they having you do?" Rianae asked.

"Testing me for allergies. I don't have any naturally but demons are rumored to be allergic to certain things, only whoever wrote the records didn't say what, idiot." Daray hissed. The other three traded looks, wondering how long it would be before Daray went and attacked one of the healers.

"I can't", Daray said, catching onto what they were thinking, "Namach's orders. I have ot behave like a good little demon."

"What did they say about you Rahkesh?" Silas asked. Seeing that his cousin was getting himself worked up rather violently.

"The dragon blood is changing my DNA. And, really, they don't know what that's going to do. And there was something about magically charging my brain." Rahkesh said.

"I remember reading about those experiments, the subjects all died, rather horribly." Rianae said, "perhaps the DNA change will allow you to survive?"

"I hope so."

"You realize that with altered DNA you can no longer be classified as 100 human." Daray said, "and if you're not human, and not anything else, the chances of you being able to reproduce are very slim, hope you didn't want kids."

XXX

It was cold in the streets of London, though not so cold as the mountains Akren was built amongst. It was late and very dark when Rahkesh entered an alley that appeared (to muggles) to not exist, and moved through the magical barrier and into the magical part of the city.

Almost immediately he was forced to dodge a stray bone-breaking spell. _Poorly done_ he thought as it shimmered out of existence behind him. Whoever had cast it was not well trained.

Up ahead of him nine figures in robes were attacking a tenth. The spell had not been aimed at him; Rahkesh relaxed just a little, but kept his wand out anyway.

The person being attacked was managing to hold off their attackers fairly well, which was probably do to the complete lack of skill the attackers showed. Flinging not-so-dangerous curses and hexes at fairly slow speed and with little power. Very poorly trained. It did not occur to Rahkesh that before spending the better part of a year at Akren he would not have been so unimpressed. He probably would have thought of them as quite dangerous.

Unfortunately the person being attacked was already injured, limping heavily and appeared to be almost unable to fight back. For all that whoever it was was swatting the curses aside and dodging and managing to throw some extremely destructive spells in return.

As Rahkesh watched one of the attacker ran forward and tried to throw a punch. A very poorly done punch, he didn't even make a fist correctly, and the person being attacked picked him up and tossed him aside like a he would a feather pillow.

Whoever was being attacked wasn't human. Rahkesh carefully reached out, trying to ascertain the species, and immediately sensed a werewolf. Second later he caught the telepathic "tag" that all Akren alumni wore constantly in their telepathic aura. It was a requirement, after graduation Akren graduates had to wear it within the outer limit of their aura for life. An Akren alumni werewolf.

"Immobulus!" Rahkesh said softly, mentally concentrating on directing the magic and removing all visible light. They had been taught at Akren that visible light or color from flying magic was a sign of power being drains off and dissipated into the air as it moved. If there was no visible light then when the spell hit its target it still contained all of the power the caster had given it. It also made it very hard to dodge.

Two of the attackers froze, immobile. Three rupturing spells in rapid succession caused three of the others to drop back, screaming, as various organs or arteries ruptured. Rahkesh sent out a telepathic signal Akren. While the students and alumni of Akren might kill each other they would also fight to protect each other from anyone else.

The werewolf began fighting harder, he stunned the injured ones, then cast a quick burst of healing magic at them. The werewolf stunned two more and Rahkesh broke one persons back, not fatally, but he would probably be paralyzed. He then bashed the last one over the head with a blasting curse that knocked him out.

"Are you injured?" Rahkesh asked, approaching the werewolf, who did not appear to be in very good shape.

"Nothing you could heal. A recent pack fight." The werewolf was male and appeared to be very tired.

"Full moon last night." Rahkesh nodded, understanding. "Any idea who they were?"

"No. Probably just a group that figured out I was a werewolf."

"And decided to attack you for it." Rahkesh said, "foolish of them, so close to a full moon."

"Yes, well, the general public…" he trailed off with a sigh.

"Are imbeciles." A voice from the shadows finished.

Both the werewolf and Rahkesh whirled around, then stilled, sensing the Akren telepathic signal again. A moment later a vampire walked out of a side alley between the backs of two stores. It was Andrew Farov, who Rahkesh had been on his way to see.

"This is twice in one night non-humans have been attacked." The vampire said, stopping to cast a repairing spell on the man with the broken back. The basic repairing spell was not meant for injuries, and the man screamed horribly as his back fixed itself. Farov had a silencing charm around him, and the others, so it did them little good.

"Ever since that new law." The werewolf muttered, "by the way my name is Daniel, Daniel Markstone, and thank you." Rahkesh shrugged.

"Rahkesh Asmodaeus, and their lack of spell casting ability ought to be criminalized." The other two snorted. "The other one who was attacked tonight?"

"Me. Stopped by one of the old vampire pubs to help close it down." Farov replied. The werewolf chuckled.

"I suppose they won't be seeing daylight ever again?" Daniel asked.

"No, certainly not. The survivor will spend the rest of his life cleaning my manor." Farov said with a toothy, nasty grin. Rahkesh shook his head, hoping they would take it for amusement. He decided that the vampire and the werewolf had met before, they seemed familiar.

"Since we're going to my manor anyway how about we take them along for questioning?" Farov asked Rahkesh, Rahkesh nodded and levitated them all. "You too Daniel, you'll probably want to hear this."

"Even if I already know it by heart." The werewolf replied, nodding and following them anyway.

Being a special agent of, and second only to, the master of London, Farov had a fairly nice place. Magically removed from the world with enough muggle repelling charms that if a muggle had somehow wound up in the middle of it they would have died. A sprawling ancient stone castle/mansion with immaculate grounds a pond and a small orchard.

Beneath the manor was a level of dark, rank, damp cells with old iron bars and a single blanket each and a tiny old cot that was probably infested with a vast variety of insect colonies, Rahkesh tossed the prisoners into cells Farov directed him to. There were curses coming from behind a solid windowless door, someone was very angry.

"The last of those that attacked me, if he keeps up with the cursing I might just keep him alive a bit longer to learn some of it, he has a rather astonishing vocabulary." Farov explained at Rahkesh's raised eyebrow.

The vampire removed a container of vertisarum from a cabinet and gave each prisoner a few drops. Then he woke the first. Daniel settled down onto a bench and watched, looking rather grim.

"Why did you attack this man?" Farov asked as he attached chains to the man's throat and wrists and attached them to the wall. Giving him enough slack to reach the toilet in the corner but not the door.

"He's a bloody werewolf, ought to be exterminated like the animal he is." The man hissed.

"Did you know that he has never killed anyone, or bitten anyone. Killing him would make you a worse animal than him." Farov said. Rahkesh raised an eyebrow at Daniel. He had not heard of any students getting through Akren without killing. Daniel nodded and shrugged.

"He a werewolf, they're all liars. Criminals, plotting against us humans, want the world for themselves." The man growled out "They're evil." Daniel sneered. Farov rolled his eyes and gave the man the antidote. Then he leaned down to his prisoners level, curled his lip into a snarl and extended his fangs.

"Oh no, he is not evil, but I am. You have no concept of evil…but you'll learn fast enough." He whispered, and then knocked the man out with a wandless spell before he could make any response.

"Always the same." Daniel sighed, he shook his head and stood up. "And I don't suppose the others will have anything different to say, there's almost no point in asking." Farov locked the cell door and gestured for them to head up the stairs. Rahkesh did not feeling the least bit of pity for the men in the cells.

"That one will be entertaining some of friends when they come to visit next." He said with a nasty smile, "I'll regulate his food and drink intake so his blood tastes better, and fresh blood is considered much more civilized than the stuff that's been stored for years. Especially right from a mortal wizard's throat." He practically purred, Rahkesh rolled his eyes and didn't comment, wondering if the vampire was baiting him. Daniel tossed Rahkesh a look behind the vampire's back and rolled his eyes too.

Farov led them to a lavishly decorated sitting room with a huge fireplace and furniture that looked several centuries old. There one of his slaves, a very pretty blond haired middle aged woman wearing a simple dark blue dress and silver collar, served them drinks and a healing potion designed for werewolves around the full moon, when they could not be healed by most spell or most potions meant for humans. Farov waved her away and opened up a secret drawer in the coffee table and pulled out a plain folder from which he removed an exact copy of the recent anti-vampire declaration, complete with the signatures of all those involved.

"This needs to get to Tristan as soon as you possibly can." He told Rahkesh, handing it to him. "He's the only one who knows who the record keeper is right now."

Rahkesh took the papers and placed them in another folder, after charming Farov's fingerprints off of them. He didn't question why Namach was the only one who knew the record keeper, or even who that was; he was starting to understand that getting too deep into the world of the vampires was not such a good idea. If they wanted to tell him, or if he needed to know, he could find out. Besides, he had a feeling the answers to most of his questions about the vampires would not be things he really wanted to hear or know about, until it was necessary, if it ever was.

"Somehow I don't think killing those involved will make any change." Rahkesh told Farov.

"No I don't think so either, and neither do any of the city masters. But we might as well, and our options are fairly miniscule." Farov admitted.

"Well the werewolves will be happy to help." Daniel told the vampire, "last night was the pack meetings to decide what to do about the Ministry's anti-magical being stance."

"How many sided with Voldemort?" Farov asked.

"Not many. He's got too many purebloods around him and we don't feel like being treated as animals by them. And Fenrir Greyback as almost universally hated. Most of the packs are actively executing any werewolf who helps him, that's how I was injured." Daniel said, removing the bandages from his now healed wounds. The slave appeared again at some hidden signal to take them. "Most everyone is leaving Europe entirely. Russia sent the heads of some of their packs to try to entice us to go there. They're even cleaning up the process for switching citizenship to make it even easier." Changing citizenship was already very easy for magical peoples, simply because there were so few of them. Even people with criminal records had an easier time of it than muggles.

"A lot of countries are doing that. By the end of this Europe may wind up having the lowest magical populations of any place in the world." Rahkesh responded. He had been looking into countries that his friends might prefer to move to, and he was considering moving Harry Potter somewhere else as a public statement. Akren students didn't technically have any citizenship anywhere because no government was going to bother Akren about their citizens, but Harry Potter still existed.

"Have the vampires started to move against the mortals yet?" Rahkesh asked Farov.

"Not quite yet, very soon."

"I suppose there's no hope of smoothing that over?" Rahkesh asked, Farov glared at him and Rahkesh shrugged, he had to ask. If there was any chance to avoid war.

"We grow tired of being looked down upon as lesser beings. And, in this case, the mortals have been going too far, there is a new move to outlaw association with halfbreeds and nonhumans, unless that association involves extermination. There are too many vampires who will not put up with this." Andrew Farov explained.

"I would never ask them too." Rahkesh replied, "but not every country is doing this."

"True, that is a problem. If we permit vengeance here vampires will come to believe all mortals are worthless. And, most interestingly, I think that the muggles would be much more accepting of us." The vampire said, anticipating where Rahkesh was going with this. The difference between what muggles thought and did and what the magical people thought and did was frequently completely opposite. Especially in countries where one side was in some sort of turmoil. "However no one has suggested an alternative."

Rahkesh grinned; he'd given this a lot of thought. "I have one."

"Do tell." Daniel said, "the werewolves are out of ideas too."

"It's really very simple, there is a lot of discontent with what is happening in Europe. Most other magical communities would be happy to take advantage of the situation."

"Well we know Russia is, at least a third of the werewolves are seriously considering moving there. Especially since wolfsbane is readily available and government subsidized so it doesn't cost so much." Daniel said.

"And the muggleborn magic users here are very unhappy as well, and in the most danger. I don't know what the current estimate is on how many have left Europe…"

"Almost six thousand left Europe in the past two months." Farov replied. "And those were adults, they took three quarters of that number in underage witches and wizards with them. Before that, since mid summer, another seven thousand adults." Which was not a huge percentage of the population, but significant enough to be noticed by everyone.

"And we know that there are too few purebloods to continue for long without new input. Inbreeding will kill them."

"Too true." Daniel muttered.

"Voldemort relies on a rich pureblood support base. Any they rely on a fairly large population, which relies heavily on new muggle born witches and wizards. It would be easy enough to get to young people before Hogwarts does, intercept them and explain things to their parents. It is well known that a large percentage of people who get letters from that school think it's a prank and don't reply, or don't know how to reply. Hogwarts has long been blind to how difficult it is for muggleborns to figure out where to go and what to do. The get only a very basic rudimentary explanation by mail. The other schools are only a little better, Durmstrang is worse, and Beauxbatons doesn't exist anymore. It would be simple to convince all of them to go elsewhere for schooling. It would be even easier to talk all muggle parents of children currently in schooling into going elsewhere. The purebloods will approve at first, but given a little time and the current mass exodus and Europe will find itself fresh out of witches and wizards. Leaving only those who approve of what is happening."

"So that it is even easier to pick them off." Farov said. "Never leave out that. The vampires want revenge on those who teach their children to think we're evil, and I imagine the werewolves aren't interested in stopping us."

"Certainly not." Daniel said, "my pack only wishes for tickets to the interrogations and executions of certain people. I can make you a list." Farov laughed.

"Eventually everything will shut down. Then it can be rebuilt differently. It may take a generation or two, but the process can be speeded up if everyone who leaves is required to be reeducated by their new countries on such things as the so called "dark" magic and creatures. I rather think most places would be delighted with such a program." Rahkesh finished, conveniently leaving out the part about him getting rid of Voldemort. He wasn't going there with either of these two. That was his own assignment. And he had several helpers currently figuring out exactly where the underground fortress on the Riddle property (they owned an awful lot of land) was. That done he could retrieve the cup.

"It would take a lot of people to implement." Farov said after a moment.

"Don't a lot of magical schools require students to be educated about other places with magical communities? Make it a school requirement to go and talk to new muggle born witches and wizards in Europe." Rahkesh answered.

"A sound plan, I will inform my master. There is a gathering of Akren alumni soon here in London, there're eighty or so of us around, though even we have been leaving of late. Perhaps they will be able to think up some new ideas and help implement this." Farov said.

"It would be easier to go directly to magical schools elsewhere and get them in on this first, before their governments even." Daniel said, "bypass the bureaucracy and get it started fast."

"Perhaps some alumni and current students could go back to their old schools and talk to their former teachers." Rahkesh suggested, knowing he would have to make a trip to Hogwarts soon. On the sly of course, no one would know. Perhaps Neville could start spreading the idea amongst those who were left.

"And articles in the major newspapers, there're so many being home schooled these days." Farov added. "Will you two stay the night?" The vampire asked.

"No thanks." Rahkesh said, Daniel said the same. Rahkesh escorted the still limping werewolf to the apparition point.

"Are you sure you'll make it home alright?" He asked, Daniel nodded.

"I'm a level seven mediwizard, I have everything I need at home." Daniel assured Rahkesh. "Though my mate might rip my tail off for being four hours late."

Rahkesh waited until the werewolf had left, then apparated to a cottage owned by the Potters. He had little doubt that the vampires would take up his idea, and spread it quickly They were very fast operators, a direct result of being so highly socially organized and so obedient to the stronger vampires. They functioned with amazing efficiency and discipline, when they decided on something. He just hoped none of the city masters or their advisors were too angry to listen to a slower, but more effective, solution.

He would have to contact his friends, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasely, even if Ron didn't agree his parents might. So might Neville's grandmother. And he would need to speak to the DA, and Luna's father maybe. Hermione's parents definitely. Their parents were probably more rational than his friends would be about leaving. The master of London would have one of his advisors write to the Daily Prophet, Rahkesh was staying far away from there for now. Hopefully bringing Harry Potter into play wouldn't be necessary. If everyone thought he was being trained by exaurors on Dumbledore's orders (the current rumor) then it would expected that he would be cut off from most of society.

XXXX

"Vampires only harm those that they don't like. You two are probably safe from them. Vampires will go after those who think that vampires are inferior, or inherently evil, and I'm very worried that Ron is one of those." Rahkesh/Harry explained to the twin redheads sitting across the table from him.

He was in the twins office at their shop in Diagon Alley, with a electric blue carpet and yellow walls and neon green furniture. As happy as the twins had been to see him they now looked very worried. Rahkesh…Harry right now, wished he'd had better news, he hated always seeing everyone with grim tidings.

"You're right about that."

"Ron can be remarkably close-minded and bigoted at times."

"You think that by the time he pulls his head out of his arse it'll be too late?" George asked.

"Vampires read minds, Ron hasn't the slightest bit of occlumency and I don't think he's capable of learning it." Harry explained. "I remember his reaction to hearing that Remus was a werewolf, if his reaction to vampires is similar, and I think it will be much worse, then he doesn't have a chance."

"Bill and Fleur are leaving." Fred said, twirling two quills simultaneously around his hand.

"Charlie has been looking at jobs all over the world, anywhere but around here, I already talked to him." Harry said nodding. He'd met both the older Weasely brothers at the bank that day. "I suggested he check out Australia and New Zealand. The job market for dragon researchers is huge there right now, and only getting better."

"We'll call Bill and Charlie home, then talk it over with mom and dad." George said finally.

"Tell him the United States Department of Magical-Muggle connections is hiring." Harry replied, having asked Ally to look into that, she was American and her dad worked for the government.

"Mum will throw a fit about abandoning the cause." Fred warned.

"Actually leaving right now serves the cause just fine." Harry said. He explained the plan to slowly remove all of the magical population, retrain those who needed it, get people to relax about vampires and werewolves, and cutting Voldemort off. "He can have Europe, but there won't be any magical people left. Will he decide to show the muggles we exist? I don't know. It's a concern, but the vampires are going to do that within a decade or two anyway." Harry said.

"They are?"

"Why?"

"They're sick of hiding. They're sick of the fear. They're sick of the separation between the magical and nonmagical communities. It doesn't mean muggle and magic folk will mix, it just means they'll know we all exist. The major concern is religious upheaval. But the vampires really don't care. I think they're ready to start cutting the world down and rebuilding it." Harry said, voicing his suspicions about the vampire's intentions. It was no mystery that the vampires didn't like the way the world was going and wanted to start over.

"If you're implying,"

"what we think you're implying"

"that is very scary." The twins said.

"Yes it is. But it will happen no matter what we do, they've been planning this for nearly two centuries. And they're killing off all the extra vampires, just in time to wipe out most of the mortals and start returning the world to the way it was a few thousand years ago to start over. If they want to try again there isn't a damn thing we can do about it really. Especially since the fae support the idea."

"And you think Voldemort…?"

"Will let the muggles know we exist when he realizes he's stuck. It's hard to be ruler when there's nothing to rule, and it's even worse to be a conqueror when there's no one around but your own people."

"Are you trying to prevent that?"

"Not really. I'm hoping that relaxing tensions amongst the magical beings will make things easier when the vampires make their move. And I'm hoping to finish killing Voldemort before he breaks the news to the muggles. And slowing the vampires by giving them people who hate them. Perhaps with Voldemort gone, everyone a bit more open and friendly, less fear, we can find another way."

"Harry Potter."

"Planning the future of the world." The twins said.

"I don't need the advertising."

"Never said you did mate."

"We just hope you're up to this." Fred finished. Harry shook his head and sighed.

"I hope so too." He looked up again, "of course, it may not mater at all if Voldemort really did try to break into the elf realm because they'll kill all of us and there'll be no one left to worry about anything." He watched while the twins thought, wondering if they really did have a telepathic connection.

"We're leaving." They both said finally.

XXXX

"Cornish Pixies? I'm allergic to _pixies_?" The sickly-green glowing, dead-looking, vampire exclaimed in disbelief. His orange eyes flashed brightly just before he vomited again, and began shivering.

"Well…only if you eat them." Akren's chief healer said, carefully backing away. Rahkesh, who had come in just in time to hear the end of the conversation, had to stifle a laugh, not wanting to be cursed. Pixies. Oh that was too good!

"You ATE a Cornish pixie?" He asked, finally making his presence known. Daray growled loudly at him.

"They attacked him, he was in demon form, and bit one." The chief healer explained. She smirked as the vampire vomited again.

"The high and mighty demon, taken down by the little pesky demons. I love it." Rahkesh said, now snickering openly since he was pretty sure Daray was in no position to harm him. The vampire merely glared and lay down, the green glow slowly started to fade.

"And he glows green," Rahkesh muttered, "perhaps you shall take Rudolph's place next year, feed him some pixies and call up the sleigh."

"Oh shut up." Daray muttered. "And if you tell anyone about this I'll kill you."

"If you can. You look a little peaked right now." Rahkesh teased, peaked was an extreme understatement. "Does he have to eat it or will inhaling work?"

"He'd have to grow an awful lot to inhale a pixie." The healer replied.

"I meant powdered pixies, dead powdered pixie." Rahkesh explained.

"I'm not sure, I don't think so, but it might cause some other reaction. If he inhaled it, yes there would be some reaction, or if he got it in his eyes." The healer finally decided, she glanced over at professor Strawlime who had been helping with the tests. "Do you have any powdered pixies?"

"No but if I kill one and start drying it now I could powder it and have it ready by tomorrow." The potions master replied.

"NO! Absolutely not. We know I'm allergic, leave it at that!" Daray yelped, halfway sitting up, the motion caused him to reel sickly and collapse again.

"It might be too dangerous." The healer agreed as she checked his eyes again. "I think the worst of the reaction is over. But you're staying here tonight." Daray groaned, and, surprisingly, didn't complain. He must really be feeling awful.

"I'll look after Satan, but he bothers Sygra I'll roast him and eat him." Rahkesh warned.

"That bat would kick your ass." Daray retorted. Okay maybe he wasn't feeling so bad.

"Your silly little flying mouse couldn't give me a nosebleed." Rahkesh said. Daray smirked.

"Oh good, then you won't mind taking part in his training tomorrow will you? I was hoping he'd finally achieve an adult metamorphosis." Daray said, grinning evilly. Rahkesh recognized that look, and began to worry.

"Ah, second thought, I'm kind of busy tomorrow."

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Please review!

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Shall I take the world back to the stone age?

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Whoever guesses what Silas animagus form is gets cookies! (Rahkesh's forms are too easy…well one of them is…I don't think many will figure out the second one.)

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A vote! Do I kill Ron? (Actually I just want to know what everyone thinks of him. I get the impression a lot of people don't like him.)

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	27. Chapter 27

**Note from author**: Many, many thanks to those who nominated this fic for Best Independent Harry FanFiction at the Fanfiction Awards. I don't think I've ever been nominated for an award before. Thank You!

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Wow! Over a hundred reviews! For one chapter! Oh thank you everyone!

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Chapter 27

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There were six of them in the room, five vampires and one mortal, if the Dark Lord could be described as mortal. And he preferred to be considered an immortal, and no one was going to question him on that.

"The mortal governments have unjustly persecuted you, and turned their citizens against you. I will give you justice and safety from them." Voldemort promised. The vampire across the table from him, a very young vampire who had only been among the undead for ten years, turned when he was thirty, nodded, he'd heard the speech before. But this particular wizard liked to hear himself talk, and as they needed him and his followers to think well of the vampires more than Voldemort needed the vampires as allies. He would sit through the self glorifying and rather endless speeches.

"When I rule the world you will have an honored place in our society, and access to anyone who dares to challenge the ruling class." Voldemort said, noting the nods and complete agreement. They really were very simple, these young vampires. Many of them were so poorly trained that his death eaters could beat them easily, but they were learning quickly and might someday become some of his best minions. And they inspired such terror.

"When do we attack?" Another vampire asked. "They've started attacking vampires on sight; it's time we fought back!" This one had been dead longer, maybe twenty years, he had been a squib before being turned, and so was not worth even a glance. The young vampires had their own hierarchy, magical ones at the top, those that had been muggles at the bottom.

"I have found a way for you to gain what you want, and for me to get back some of my death eaters that have been captured." Voldemort said once a suitable silence had passed and the vampire had realized he wasn't worthy of asking questions.

"Azkaban." The very young vampire said.

"Yes, I want my death eaters back alive and unharmed; you may take all of the others as your slaves. Though I would like to find a handful of the most powerful to recruit, I didn't think you would object much, after all the most powerful of them might prove troublesome as slaves." Voldemort said reasonably, and once again the vampire agreed.

The meeting broke up moments later as the vampires left to gather their forces and review floor plans of the prison. No one noticed three of them slip away into the night, vanishing with a skill that none of the young vampires could have matched. The master of London would not be pleased to hear of this.

-

"You want me to do WHAT?" The auror sentry shouted into the glowing fireplace. He immediately regretted it, he was only in his fifth week on the job and questioning a superior was not a way to keep his job, nasty as it was. Guarding Azkaban wasn't fun at the best times, and there was a war on. But they couldn't really expect him to-

"I said to STOP THEM. Whatever it takes stop the bloodsuckers and hold them until backup arrives." The angry voice barked back. The junior auror looked back at the looming fortress of Azkaban, he was on the outer most watch point by the docks, and therefore possibly the only guard left alive. It was not a reassuring thought for a young man not four years out of school.

There was no sign of movement, no flashes of light to indicate magic or the signal flares. Nothing, dark and absolutely quiet, there wasn't even a breeze stirring the single flag. The guard inside had said vampires. He'd never met a vampire before. And he wasn't looking forward to it. He was muggleborn and his mind immediately snapped to images off muggle television, were vampires anything like that? And how could he possibly be expected to stop a horde of them? And how many qualified as a horde anyway? Were any of the others alive? And why were they trying to save a bunch of death eaters in the first place? After all they already imprisoned for life, why risk their lives bothering? How many was a horde? Surely this was some sort of test, vampires wouldn't attack a _prison_. Would they? It was the new moon, and there was no light except for the torches, and it seemed almost unnaturally dark. Why did they have to choose the new moon? And why couldn't they go attack the bastard telling him to fight them all off?

The fire-link flared to life abruptly, turning bright green, and two people came stumbling out. One of them, with a flash of purple hair, went tripping over the coffee table and head over heels into a stool, which broke.

"Ooops, sorry about that!" She yelped, jumping up and tripping over the couch. Which rocked backwards and seemed to make a hrumph! of disapproval as it hit the floor again and rocked upright.

"Stay still Tonks, you'll bring the whole building down." The other one grumbled, charming the ash off his robes. He cast a wary look around the room and frowned at the couch and open doorway. The young man by the fire relaxed, relieved, it was auror Shacklebolt, now there was someone else making the decisions.

"Auror, there're thirty more coming through in a few moments. Keep the link open." Shacklebolt said, "Tonks and I will go take a look." The young man by the fire nodded, and watched as the two went out the door, across the short lawn, and into the fortress.

The minute they left and strong gust of wind flew through the windows and blew the door shut. As it clanged shut a figure stepped out from behind it. The auror leapt to his feet, drawing his wand in a shaky hand.

But the person was gone. He froze, and then turned quickly scanning the small circular room. There was no one. He was imagining things, just the fear of his first crisis on a job.

The vampire released his hold on the rafters and dropped, landing silently behind the auror as he let out a terrified breath and started to relax. He didn't notice the hand that grabbed his hair - until his head was yanked back and sharp white fangs bit into his neck.

The second vampire rose from behind the couch and put out the fire. There would be no reinforcements.

-

Shacklebolt and Tonks ran down an empty, cold, lightless hallway. There was no sign of life at all, the spider webs and dust in the corners had not been disturbed, and there were no ashes or blast marks on the wall, nothing to indicate a fight. The first cell block, reserved for those who had only committed minor crimes, was up ahead, but there was no sound from the prisoners.

The first cell had two men in it, both were slumped on the ground, unconscious, a spell cast over their necks revealed healed puncture wounds consistent with vampire bites.

"Well, at least they're alive." Tonks said shakily. She looked up and down the hall, and then moved on to the other cells. "They've all been bit bitten!"

"But not killed." Shacklebolt observed quietly. "And they weren't taken as prisoners. I wonder why?"

"You know there were no footprints on the grass as we came over," Tonks suddenly said, "they didn't get here on foot."

Shacklebolt joined her at the door leading to a spiral stairwell that led up to upper cells. He pressed an ear against the door and listened, there was no sound.

"How many are there do you think?" Tonks asked as they ran up the stairs. "I mean each vampire can only drink so much right?" Shacklebolt didn't respond.

They finished with the above ground cells, finding only unconscious criminals drained of only small amounts of blood. They didn't know how many had been in the prison originally but all the doors were locked. It seemed like everyone was inside. This of course begged the question of how the vampires had gotten to the prisoners to drink their blood if they hadn't opened the cells.

Dark blue eyes that shone with an unnatural light watched the two aurors leave, the man turning at the door to look back again. The woman was already gone. The vampire pounced.

Shacklebolt hadn't made it to his position by not being wary enough or skilled enough in a fight. But the vampire moved so fast and hit him so hard Shacklebolt didn't stand a chance. With the door suddenly closed by another vampire going after Tonks, and the illusion spells on the windows, the light of the one shield spell he got off wasn't seen outside the corridor, and there wasn't anyone left to see it anyway. Shacklebolt found himself pinned to the damp stone wall, his wand gone, both arms held behind his back, cheek pressed against the wall so hard the skin scraped off. He froze, wondering if attempting wandless magic would help. But the vampire didn't bite, and so he waited.

"We could kill them all, and all your aurors." The vampire said calmly after a few moments, in which Shacklebolt was very much aware of his own harsh breathing, and the complete lack of breath or movement from the vampire.

"Why not?" Shacklebolt snarled, trying the twist away, the vampire ignored his struggles until he stopped, finally realizing that he wasn't going anywhere. Vampiric strength - and he hadn't even heard him or sensed him. It was not an average vampire then, the commander of the invading force perhaps? Certainly old, and very powerful, to move so fast avoid detection so well.

"They're useless to us dead. And that would give your silly Ministry a cause for hating us. All the prisoners we left will be fine. The ones we took…you needn't worry about ever seeing them again." The silky voice sounded very pleased. The breath from the vampire words ghosted across his neck, the vampire was way to close to his throat and Shacklebolt tried to lean away.

"My aurors?"

"Alive and well. We drank enough to stop them from fighting, and then knocked them out. They're in the storeroom, hanging from the ceiling. Their wands are on the table."

"What do you want?"

"To make a point. And the death eaters. We didn't think you'd mind losing them. We left the innocent ones….so amusing, how weak you mortals are, that would convict the innocent. Truly you are far more despicable, for that alone, than we ever are."

"And what do are you going to do with the three of us?" Shacklebolt asked, assuming that they would have some how stopped the fire-link. There would be no reinforcements.

"Drink a little of your blood," a tongue licked at the vein in his neck, Shacklebolt tried to move away, the vampire scraped a fang over his skin warningly. "And then we'll send you back to the idiots who run your world."

Shacklebolt thought fast, finally decided to minimize the damage to himself, and did not fight as the vampire's fangs sliced the vein in his throat.

Beyond the door a second vampire picked up an unconscious Tonks, checked to make sure the wounds on her neck had healed, and carried her out of the prison and back to the guard room. Here he opened a one-way link and tossed her through, followed by the young guard.

-

"Lord Hadrian?" The master of London turned as he heard someone searching for him. Unblocking his mind he let his magical presence flow away from him and felt the searcher pause and change direction. A moment later Andrew Farov appeared at the doorway to his office where he had been pacing, waiting for the attack party to return.

"The raid was successful. All the captives are in the cells."

"The vampires Voldemort sent?" That had been the primary reason for the attack, to stop the young vampires who had sided with Voldemort. And to make a point to the Ministry of Magic.

"Also in the cells, drained until they are nearly unconscious. Ambrosius's guards are looking after them." Farov said with distaste, which was not lost on Hadrian. He had three vampires who could each be considered his second-in-command. And they did not get along very well. Thank goodness Kylara was off meeting with her sister, Cyala Ateres, otherwise he'd have had all three of them fighting over who got to do what about this first fight.

Farov watched his master start pacing again, wondering exactly how quickly the war between the elder vampires and the hordes of young ones would escalate. There had been almost five thousand vampires killed across Russia in the past two weeks alone. And the remaining ones were fleeing into neighboring countries. They hadn't gotten any refugees yet, but it was only a matter of time. He couldn't wait.

"Soon, Farov, we'll be going after them soon enough." His master had either read his mind or been thinking the same thing. Farov shifted nervously, he didn't like having his mind read, and Lord Hadrian knew it.

"Would it be possible to keep our young prisoners around for a while, to train against and to feed from?" He asked. He was training some new recruits, and while sparring was all well and good it was better to actually practice killing.

"That would give some variety now wouldn't it?" Hadrian mused. Not all blood was the same, muggles were different from magic folk, who were different tasting from squibs, who were different from non-magical vampires, who were different from magical vampires. For a species that needed blood, mostly human blood, the vampires might be a bit restricted, but there were so many flavors. Even different ethnic group tasted different, and within each such group were magical and nonmagical varieties, vampires and nonvampires. Only usually drinking the blood of another vampire was a bit difficult. Farov was waiting for a reply.

"Perhaps, find out how different our captives are, keep the best of them," He finally decided.

"I'll get the guards working on it." Farov said with a nasty grin. Hadrian hummed and Farov paused, waiting again while the master vampire paced.

"I am calling in all the vampires in the country." Hadrian informed his second. Not having to say that he did not mean _all_ the vampires. Just those that were loyal to him and whose presence in his territory he recognized. There were only about four hundred of those. And possibly several thousand he had not acknowledged.

"Not all of them want mortal slaves." Farov reminded him.

"I know that. But I need to meet with them all anyway. Perhaps I'll serve them our vampire captives at the meeting, hm?" He paused a moment, pacing, and heard Farov shift restlessly. His second had a question but he wasn't sure if it was safe to ask it, fortunately Hadrian knew what he wanted anyway. "Naturally those of higher rank will have the first choice. How many did you take from the prison?"

"Fifty eight."

"You may pick two if you like, no more." Farov grinned again and bowed, then turned to leave, Hadrian waited until he'd reached the door before speaking "call in Alastor. Tomorrow night at ten." Farov nodded and left. Leaving his master wearily rubbing his eyes and wondering if the mortals would remove their absurd laws, and what was he going to have to if they didn't? Declare an all-out war?

"Damn you Voldemort." Hadrian hissed into the dawn. "If it was just the mortals I might be able to handle it. Everything was going according to plan until you showed up." Voldemort had managed to ruin so many years worth of planning. They had been so careful; all the young vampires with leadership ability had been removed, leaving them with no rally point once the executions started. Then the mortals had started acting up, and the young were always quick to anger and even quicker to try to find vengeance. And Voldemort had offered to help.

The blinds closed automatically as the sun rose, blocking out all the light. While Hadrian had enough bloodmagics that sunlight would not harm him, that didn't mean he liked it. The sun's rays were still annoying, just no longer harmful. Hadrian felt the usual exhaustion and call for the dead sleep that came with the dawn, but he had work to do. Voldemort had originated in his territory, and so had the latest anti-vampire movement, and so he had to keep the others updated. Well, not all of them, those that he approved of. And the ancients, it would never do to forget them. Perhaps he would invite them to his gathering. It had been a long time since they had all gotten together. And Voldemort was rapidly going international, and the anti-vampire laws already were.

Hadrian opened an ancient file cabinet where he kept records of every master vampire and ancient, and every other vampire of note. Some of them would be unreachable, some of them always were. Some of them hadn't been heard from by anyone for well over a thousand years. But there was no harm in trying. And maybe this time they would listen. Their species was on the brink of multiple wars and it wouldn't do to be unorganized.

And the ancients who no one knew about…there was always the eldest for that, Namach would not ignore his request for the records of their names.

XXXX

"They are really keeping them as slaves then?" Hermione asked, looking positively horrified. Rahkesh – Harry today, nodded.

"Yes, they are."

"And you're okay with this!" Hermione finally snapped, loudly, Harry reinforced the silencing and anti-eavesdropping and garbling wards.

"Yes. With vampires there is no room for mistakes. They take _only_ the guilty. Those they left behind, some of them hate vampires, but they were thrown into Azkaban while being innocent of any crime, and so the vampires left them. I don't agree with slavery Hermione, but you can't fight everyone on everything, and I've chosen not to fight them on this. So far they're being pretty reasonable." Harry explained. It would be in the Prophet the next day, or maybe the day after. He'd asked to be notified before anything happened and the vampires had kept their word.

Hermione hrumphed and looked away. Harry waited; her common sense should kick in eventually. Even if she did tend to go overboard about issues like this she was still more likely to see that it wasn't something to be fighting over than Ron was.

"I suppose so." Hermione said finally, "but I don't like it Harry, I really don't. Who's to say they won't be enslaving or killing everybody next?"

"No one. But I do trust the old ones, somewhat. And, really, these are the death eaters we're talking about. You'll have to excuse me if I'm not too concerned about the Lestrangs."

Hermione nodded in agreement. Then she pulled out a letter and handed it to him. "Professor McMonagal said to give that to you."

"She thinks you're in contact with me?" Harry replied, not touching the letter on the table.

"Everyone thinks we're in contact with you. A lot of students have been asking me where you are and what you're doing. I think they're confused, they wish you were around to stop the death eaters and vampires."

Harry summoned the letter into his bag; he'd check it for spells in a pub down in Hogsmead before going back to Akren.

"About time they stopped relying on a savior and started taking care of themselves." He said finally, forgetting to watch his voice and realizing too late that a bit of the contempt he felt for most of the world had gotten out.

"Oh Harry," Hermione said, shaking her head, "they're frightened. They've been told all there lives there was nothing to worry about because you had stopped Voldemort, and then you were always there for six years, and now you're not. Of course they're confused."

"I don't see anything confusing about it; they have to learn to stand up for themselves. Doesn't seem so difficult." Hermione sighed and started shaking her head again. "And I'm on the vampire's side anyway. Though I will get rid of Voldemort eventually they're going to have to deal with the vampires and other magical creatures on their own."

"They won't Harry. They hate the vampires, and everyone's terrified of them. I tried to talk to Ron about it and he wants to become a vampire hunter and kill them all." Hermione said. Harry wasn't surprised to hear any of it. Ron would go for anyhting that would promise glory. Though he had held on to some, unreasonable, hope that Ron wouldn't be _such_ an idiot. His old friend tended to be radical in the actions he wanted to take and completely unreasonable. And Harry didn't think he could talk Ron out of it. Vampires were supposed to be dark and Ron had been raised in a 'light' household. With almost no real world experience and a tendency to be extremely bigoted and self righteous Ron was everything the vampires hated.

"He's in danger Hermione, Ron is. They truly despise people who think that there actions are 'good' and that they can never be wrong. You know how self-righteous Ron gets, and how he never likes to think things out from anyone's view but his own. They'll take him if they possibly can, he's everything they want to get rid of. His age will protect him, but not for long." Harry said softly. Hermione nodded, she had probably already figured that out.

"How's Ginny doing?" Harry asked.

"I'm not sure, it's difficult to tell. She seems to be thinking a lot. You know she was upset for a long time, couldn't believe you'd leave us behind. But she mentioned the other day that she could understand why you thought you had to do this. She really misses you Harry."

"I know. I'm glad to hear she isn't throwing a fit anymore."

"She wanted to be here, but her mother called her home for the weekend, they're discussing what they are going to do. I talked it over with her like you asked. And Fred and George stopped by."

"I know, I sent them."

"She didn't say what she was thinking of doing for her last year of school. McGonagal is planning on closing the school…well…the Board of Directors is planning on closing the school. McGonagal doesn't agree, I don't think. And you know what she can be like when she's decided something. She may keep the school open anyway."

"She shouldn't, better to send them elsewhere right now." Harry said, well aware that the headmistress was listening in via the (empty) portrait in the corner. "Your parents?"

"They want me to leave the country for a few years. But they're not going to make me." Hermione said, she was biting her lip, just a little bit, a sure sign she was undecided. Harry didn't push it, not just yet. She was safe for a bit longer, he'd talked to Silas who had told him that vampires didn't usually take the young as prisoners, and avoided killing them, sometimes. If they were going to kill the parent, or enslave them, then they either made sure the child understood and was okay with it, or killed/enslaved the child as well, so that there was no one out there with a grudge. Simple survival strategy. Harry could understand, even if he didn't really like it.

He left a half hour later, feeling better about his old friends than he had in many months, and very disappointed with Ron. He hadn't wanted to talk this over with his former best friend himself just yet. Ron was more likely to listen to Hermione. He was still feeling betrayed and would just say Harry had joined the dark, or just the vampires. Harry wasn't in the mood for a fight.

XXXX

"Good grief, talk about stupid." Daray muttered.

"Who?" Rahkesh asked, looking up from his oatmeal. They'd just finished another lesson on animagi and he had found himself too queasy to eat anything but unflavored oatmeal. Well, he could have tried the ham or bacon, since both his forms were carnivores, but somehow cooked meat didn't agree with him, and the all too appetizing thought of bloody fresh-killed meat was making him worry about his mental stability.

"Vampire gang/club thingy, they were all mortals who were turned later in life. Got together and fed on drunken mortals, that's how vampires get drunk, in a muggle bar." Daray explained. Rahkesh winced, talk about bad judgment. Drunk vampires and lots of mortals never mixed well, never.

"And that old yahoo who's got the Central American vampires is a tizzy went and whacked them all for being idiots." Silas finished, handing Rahkesh a copy of the paper, a vampire newspaper called The Undead - written about vampires, for vampires, by vampires. The article detailed the ongoing not-so-serious hunt for the ancient's identity. Apparently no one really cared since he/she appeared to be doing the vampiric species a great service by removing idiots and extra young ones from existence.

"I thought this sort of thing was our family's job?" Daray asked.

"We don't have anyone working in that part of the world right now." Silas reminded him, "not much point with this one around, and he seems mildly insane so we might as well leave him alone, unless he becomes a problem, which he hasn't."

"And no one has seen this person so we don't even have a physical description to go on for finding out who they are. And they mutilate the bodies so badly, after draining them of blood, that we're not sure we _want_ to meet this chap." Daray agreed.

"Sharahak?" Rahkesh asked. The two cousins thought about that for a few moments.

"Unlikely. He's a demon now, why get involved in anything beyond himself?" Daray asked. The dining hall doors banged open, stopping all conversation and causing all heads to turn.

"Hey! Take a look at this!" Tyler said, rushing breathlessly into the dining hall and tossing a paper on the table. It was a copy of the Daily Prophet. Rahkesh picked it up and read aloud.

"Vampires Raid Azkaban – Aurors Sending Thank-you Letter." He looked up to see quizzical expressions. "Azkaban is a magical prison. Guarded by dementors, or it was, they all went and joined Voldemort."

"They raided a prison? Why?" Daray asked. Rahkesh shrugged and began to read again. He had been informed beforehand via the werewolf Daniel, but he had to be careful, very careful, in everything that dealt with his home.

"In an interview with the Prophet, Andrew Farov, agent and advisor of the master of London, explained why they chose Azkaban. "We're hoping to show the wizarding world that while we do not approve of their recent new laws, we will only harm those that think vampires are inherently evil, or hate us without having ever met one of us, or dislike us because they think they are superior. The prisoners we took thought all of those things – we can read minds you know. The vast majority of death eaters believe they are superior to vampires, and most of the prisoners were death eaters, though there was one man in there who was innocent, we left him behind. We took other prisoners who were not death eaters because they were similar mentally – hate vampires for no reason, never met any one of us, think they're superior – those are the only people we harm." Aurors and Unspeakables, who almost unanimously disapprove of the new laws, sent the vampires a thank-you letter for choosing such a relatively non-violent way of showing their annoyance with the recent vampire bounties. An anonymous Unspeakable says "we are aware that they could have wiped out the entire Ministry of Magic, and would be justified in doing so, but they did not. Instead they got rid of those who were imprisoned for life, and gave us a second chance to repeal these laws. Were I a vampire I would not be that kind, and I thank them for their tolerance for us mortals.""

"It goes on for a bit about what the new laws are, but that's the basics of it." Rahkesh finished. He flipped a page and found a list of the missing people. Much to his delight Lucius Malfoy was on the list; the man had managed to get himself out of Azkaban, but had been hunted down and rearrested only a week earlier by Shacklebolt and Tonks. And now Malfoy senior was a prisoner of the vampires. Rahkesh managed to conceal his delight – it wouldn't do to show too much interest. Everyone but the headmistress thought he was home schooled and had been isolated most of his life. How wonderful, he'd have to find out somehow what had become of the man. Perhaps Moody would make an inquiry with the vampires and let him know. Rahkesh, knowing the vampire's tastes, thought the aristocrat was likely to wind up on the menu at when of the vampire get-togethers. What would Draco Malfoy think of that…actually Rahkesh hadn't any idea what had become of Malfoy junior. Other than hoping to someday meet him on a battlefield so that he could practice some particularly nasty curses on him Rahkesh hadn't given him much thought. The vampires would find out about the son through his father's mind, and would probably hunt him down too. Well Rahkesh didn't feel much pity for either of them.

"This is the first time in several hundred years that the vampires have staged an organized attack backed by a master vampire against the mortals." Tyler said, "guess the hometown's gotten a bit rough." She added to Rahkesh, who shrugged as if it didn't really matter, it shouldn't, but it did.

"I bet this has the other masters going nuts." Ally said, 'they didn't publicly agree to what was to be done yet. Not that they ever really agree anyway. And now the other anti-vampire countries will be going crazy, this just hoping one nasty can of worms."

"Uncle Grath thinks the some family members should branch out into the slave trade. Two or three of our relatives could start a small trading business." Silas said quietly. The cousins got almost daily updates on the family business and who was where killing whom.

"Grandmother hasn't owned slaves in over six hundred years." Daray commented.

"Keeping large stables of slaves went out of style after the Plague finished with Europe and Asia." Rianae explained for the three mortals. "But it's very popular in Africa and South America, and slavery has been making a comeback everywhere else in the last two centuries."

"So long as we don't get involved in any way I really don't care." Ally said. Rahkesh frowned and decided to not give an opinion just yet. He did not really approve, but he knew that vampires only enslaved those they hated, and the slaves they took never reproduced, so no one could be born into the vampiric slave system. And he really couldn't bring himself to care about the likes of Lucius Malfoy.

It was disturbing, how his homeland had started appearing in news that his fellow students cared about. He had hoped to leave all mention of his home behind, it made things easier that way. But the problems were spreading, and now had caught massive international attention. All it would take was a few questions, Rahkesh was never more aware of exactly how thin his cover was as he was when the morning paper arrived, talking about events happening in his homeland, that everyone suddenly cared to read about.

He could only imagine what would happen if anyone in Akren found out he was some sort of hero for good. It would be possibly his worst nightmare. Possibly even worse. They'd just finished brewing a potion that removed selected pieces of a person's memory, definitely not "light" by any definition of the word. And before that they'd been working on a type of slow acting poison that made the drinker behave so despicably to everyone around them that by the time they died they were universally hated. He could just hear the jokes starting. The older students would never let him live it down. Aken's pet light wizard. Who was currently learning the "art" of skinning someone alive in combat. And torn between enjoying it, and hating himself for doing so.

"Come on Rahkesh, we have class, and I'm not dealing with his temper again." Silas said, elbowing him. Rahkesh blinked and got up, dropping the paper into his bag. They had five minutes before bloodmagic class started. And Vaeryes joyfully cursed anyone who was late. Last time he'd used bloodmagic to create whips of fire, which had cut one of Rahkesh's ears in half. Fortunately he knew the correct healing spells.

-

"I see you managed to make it here on time." Vaeryes said silkily, the look on his face was completely unreadable but Rahkesh guessed he was disappointed.

"Sorry, I know how you look forward to cursing us." Rahkesh apologized without the slightest sincerity. Vaeryes's eye sparked briefly and the gleam of his bloodmagic runes against his albino skin intensified, for an instant. Then he was calm and unreadable again. Rahkesh moved past him and sat down quickly, wand ready incase Vaeryes decided to attack. There was not a single rule protecting the students of Akren from their teachers in any way, but for the no-killing-in-the-school rule. Vaeryes was free to do whatever he wanted. And he did not approve of how quickly Rahkesh and his friends had moved along with their studies. Though most other professors rewarded the better students, Vaeryes simple did not like his three youngest students. He would smile and nod at the other good students, and pick on the poor ones, but he just didn't like having first year students in his class. Though Rahkesh suspected that Vaeryes actually had started to gain certain amount of grudging respect for the three of them. And he didn't mind being picked on more than anyone else. Where at Hogwarts he would have complained about how unfair it was Rahkesh had quickly realized that here being forced to do better work more quickly just made him improve faster than the other students. Which put him even further ahead of them.

Today they were starting on the more advanced uses of bloodmagic. Besides improving on yourself bloodmagic could be used for other things. Vaeryes had demonstrated his use of it to create fire whips last class. It could be used for healing, mind magics, divination, enchantments, warding, necromancy, soul magic, and a whole host of other things. Rahkesh would have liked to have the time to learn everything about it, but he was focused on the soul magic and necromancy.

There was no doubt that Voldemort knew some necromancy, but Rahkesh doubted he knew bloodmagic necromancy, which was the most powerful form. With it Rahkesh could take control of Voldemort's inferi, and the human-life eradicating enchantments most non-bloodmagic-using necromancy used to guard things. With the soul magic Rahkesh could destroy the horcruxes while protecting himself. If they contained the rudimentary soul magic enchantments Rahkesh thought they might then he would be prepared to remove those.

Vaeryes was droning on about how most of those who progressed into soul magic and necromancy had to inject liquid fire into themselves, something Rahkesh would never have to deal with. Rahkesh glanced towards the window, it was dark out despite it being midday, and an early-spring thunderstorm was brewing, he was so tired, the animagi work had been exhausting this morning.

He could feel electrified air flowing across his wings. And power, the endless roiling power that swamped his senses and manifested itself in the thunderous booms his wings made and the crackle of magical discharge that leaped from his body.

The mountaintops dropped off below, hidden behind black clouds. Rahkesh dove back into the clouds, and let his magics loose. The air lit up, painfully bright, with lightning that leaped between the clouds until the entire mass of the storm was glowing. The rolls of thunder became more and more frequent until the noise was continuous and deafening.

Rahkesh blinked, he was in class, he had fallen asleep. Everyone was working. He jumped as a shock sparked across his fingers. Then he felt his hair shifting and rising along his arms. Electricity sparked across his body, Rahkesh unconsciously threw up a silencing charm.

His animagus form was trying to break free. He could feel feathers, that didn't exist yet, as if they were sweeping the air, trying to take flight. This wasn't supposed to be happening! He had to get out of here.

Not caring that Vaeryes would give him hell for it later, Rahkesh grabbed his books and walked quickly out of the room, leaving the class staring after him in surprise.

Outside he hurried through the corridors, until he found the hidden door Ally had shown him, where the massive tunnel that ran straight up and out the top of the mountain was. Rahkesh slipped inside and dropped his things in a corner. His body was starting to hurt horribly. His joints ached. And the air was visibly crackling about him. He could feel the power building, and knew he couldn't hold it back. This shouldn't be happening, the professor had said he would take another month until he could try to transform. But, as with everything else, Rahkesh wasn't anyone's definition of normal, or predictable.

Rahkesh took a calming breathe, though it did nothing to calm him, and closed his eyes, carefully he began his occlumency exercises, but instead of walling his mind up, he dipped inside, and found the section that was starting to come alive, and let it go.

He started screaming almost immediately, the cruciatus curse was nothing compared to this. It wasn't pain, it was magic, too much magic. Too much magic for a human body to handle. Rahkesh reached for the feeling of the feathers, of the air again, and felt himself change.

They had been told that they would practice transforming a little bit at a time, until their whole bodies changed. But this was instantaneous. One moment he was human, the next he wasn't.

Rahkesh was unaware of the shaft expanding to make room for the massive wings that unfolded from his now feather back. He was unaware of anything but the crackling power that covered him like a cloak, and the deafening roll of thunder that accompanied his transformation.

His animagus self wanted to feel the moving air again and Rahkesh agreed. And suddenly he was airborne, beating huge wings as he rose upwards towards the sky, that now lit up with lightning leaping between the clouds.

His animagus form was one of uncontrolled fury, and endless rage and power, Rahkesh had known that before hand. And so he was not surprised when he felt the need to super-charge the thunder storm above him, driving it to immense proportions impossible even with magic, any magic except his. This creature reveled in the roar of sound and power of the thunderstorm. And it wanted to play. Rahkesh carefully reeled himself in and stopped himself from letting the magics loose. Not so close to Akren.

He shot skyward out of the top of the mountain, and quickly burst into the middle of the clouds. No one could see him here.

Realizing that his species was immensely powerful, and enjoyed nothing more than using that power, Rahkesh began to release massive amounts of energy.

For those within the school it was a storm that few had ever seen the equal of. The thunder picked up in frequency until it became a nonstop crash and rumble. The sky lit up in wave after wave after wave of endless lightning that scorched the air and ground. The scent of ozone became almost unbearably strong and the sound waves shook the whole mountain.

In the classroom Daray and Silas traded looks, then glanced out the window at the sudden fury of the storm. Then Daray began to chuckle.

"He is so predictable. And Ally owes me one of her portkeys." Silas turned to stare at his cousin.

"You were betting on his animagus form?"

"Yep."

"He's not going to like that."

"What's he going to do? Electrocute me? I'm a vampire." Daray said. "Ally is going to be so pissed."

Up in his office Namach threw open the door to his balcony and walked out, ignoring the rain, to watch. With the lightning now so continuous that he could not tell where one bolt began and ended the clouds like fresh snow under intense sunlight. And between the endless flashes the form of an immense bird was visible, a dark wavering shadow amongst the glare and crackle of lightning.

The ancient shook his head and reached out with his mind. He sensed the overpowering presence and fiery spirit of the thunderbird and followed it to the mind of his student.

_Rahkesh? If you wouldn't mind coming in now? That's enough for one day.- _

A crash of thunder and brilliant flash of lightning, more powerful than any yet was the reply. You didn't tell a thunderbird what to do. And this one had been held back within a human body for far too long. Namach sighed and reached out again, requesting this time that since Rahkesh didn't have much of a choice, this magic needed to be discharged before he could transform back, could he at least take it elsewhere?

The thunderbird screamed, a sound between a lion's roar and dragons scream. Seconds later the sound waves and thunderous noise of a single beat of the massive wings made the earth tremble. Then the bird was higher up and flying away, taking the storm with it.

The ancient vampire went back inside, drying himself off wandlessly and heading for the headmistresses office. This was not good.

Thunderbirds were untamable, notorious for their lack of anything resembling calm, and probably one of the most powerful species to ever exist.

If Rahkesh had a thunderbird as an animagus form, then he was in real trouble. The thunderbird would not give way for anything, including Rahkesh's own mind. Thunderbirds were obsessed with their magic. The only way Rahkesh could ever gain control over his animagus form, would be if he had another animagus form powerful enough to match the thunderbird. And that was highly unlikely.

The last thing they needed as a student who spontaneously created massive thunderstorms. Rahkesh had to learn his next animagus form quickly, and it had to be a form that could meet a thunderbird with equal strength.

And there was almost nothing was powerful as a thunderbird. If Rahkesh didn't get another form soon, the thunderbird would consume his mind.

-

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Haha! There were a few people who predicted that. Well done.

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Please review.

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I was JOKING about the whole stone age thing. Just wanted to see what the response was. Ron is very unpopular, Voldemort probably has more fans. Interesting. (insert psychotic giggles).

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I have finals and several papers due next week so I'm apologizing in advance if the next chapter is a bit late.

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	28. Chapter 28

Many many thanks for all the lovely reviews!

Kira Bartholomew – camel of doom?

Jade – Anvil? Whale? Um okay…

Madnarutofan – mmm…cooked phoenix…yum…perhaps.

Fire and napalm – kidnap Daray and Silas and do what with them? Please, details. My poor little vamp muses got frightened and are hiding under the bed.

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Chapter 28

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"It's getting too dangerous to remain here any longer Ron. Especially if you keep speaking out against vampires."

"Too dangerous? He's not even in the country! How can he know?" Ron snorted.

"He knows because he knows a lot of them, and he's studied them. He has an inside look at what they can do and what they're really like."

"And he thinks we're not capable of stopping them." Ron said flatly. Hermione avoided that question, Ron wouldn't like the answer.

"The Ministry's anti-vampire laws are unnecessary. And they're tired of being persecuted." Hermione said. "They're not just going to let themselves be killed."

"They're dark creatures! So what if they're all killed!"

"He's just saying that because he doesn't want us around when the fighting really starts." Hermione said, trying again and knowing she was getting no where.

"Why? Because he's worried we might stop the bloodsuckers and get some recognition for ourselves?" Ron snapped back at her, like he had a dozen times. "He's left and missed his opportunity for fame and now he doesn't want us getting any either." He stood and moved restlessly around the chairs. "I'll show those bloodsuckers what real magic users can do. I'll be the head of the unit, the best in the world." Ron turned away and walked across the room, "how hard can it be to kill a vampire anyway? You've only got to tie them up long enough for the sun to come out. A binding spell is all it takes."

"Ron, for someone who seems to have chosen a career you haven't the faintest clue about what that career entails. Vampires do not die from just sunlight." Hermione told him.

"Fine I'll find out what it is and do it." Ron said with a shrug. "This is my big chance. Hey anyone who saves the world from vampires is going to be really famous; I bet I could make Minister some day." He looked delighted, the type of look on a little boy's face at an unexpected present. And Hermione was reminded once again of how young, mentally especially, Ron was.

"Ron, many vampires can do magic just like we can, and because they're vampires they've got telepathy, empathy, and telekinesis too. You can't even throw off an imperius curse, how can you possibly expect to fight them?"

"What you don't think I can do anything either? I thought you were on my side!" Ron said angrily.

"I am, I'm try to keep you from asking vampires to kill you." Hermione said sharply.

"No Ron you can't, you aren't capable, you don't know how, you can't do anything." Ron mimicked angrily in a whiny female voice. "Just what everyone else always says. All it'll take is a killing curse."

"Ron, those don't kill vampires either." Hermione pointed out. "And you aren't capable of fighting vampires, I'm not capable of it, and nor are the vast majority of the aurors."

"Hermione they're vampires! They're evil incarnate! If we don't kill them they'll take over the world!" Ron shouted.

"Ron they've been around longer than magical society has and they've never tried that. And if they wanted to they certainly have the power to. Their power grows as they age and Harry says there are some of them over three thousand years old-"

"So we'll have to kill them first!"

"Almost impossible. No one knows how. Harry said-"

"Just because _Harry_ doesn't know doesn't mean _I_ can't do it. Just because _he's_ too scared doesn't mean _I_ am!" Ron bellowed. Hermione shook her head, got up and left.

"Hermione!" Ron called as the door slammed shut.

Hermione walked up to the owlery and handed a letter to one of the school owls. "For Mad Eye Moody." She told it, Harry had some way to safely contact the old ex-auror, he'd make sure Harry got it. Then she watched the owl wing off into the dark. "Oh Gods Harry, you were right. What are they going to do to him?" She whispered, rubbing her temples and gazing sadly about the dark unkept grounds. Ron was determined to make himself a target.

Being methodical and always wanting answers she had done her research. There weren't many articles on vampires in the Hogwarts library – god forbid any children should learn what they really were, but she had read all that there was, she'd even order a book from a bookstore in Knockturn Alley and snuck into the restricted section. There had been many statements made by powerful vampires over the centuries about exactly what they all thought. Someone like Ron, bigoted and racist, was exactly what they hated most. The vampires judged each individual for themselves, and the elders usually ensured that any vampires who didn't do that didn't live to adulthood.

Even if the young, formerly muggle or weak magic user vampires were over populating and uncontrolled, there was a very powerful, very old, and very intelligent mass of vampires, organized and unwavering, that was very angry. The young and foolish weren't the ones to really worry about. The smart thing to do would be to ask the elders to take care of things. Outlawing all vampires and calling for their execution had the same ramifications as signing a death warrant.

The elders were waiting for a reason; they were giving time for the public to be turned against them by the Ministry. Only the intelligent witches and wizards, who saw through the Ministry, would be left alone. They hadn't attacked yet because they wanted to get rid of all the idiots and glory-hunting fools at once. And Harry's guesses about Ron had proved correct.

"Oh Ron, they're going to kill you, you're falling right into a trap set for people they hate. _And_ you think you're going to get one over your best friend by becoming famous." Hermione murmured.

She made her decision that night.

XXXX

"None of your aurors will protest?" Andrew Farov asked. Mad Eye Moody shrugged, his one eye watching the few people at the tables around them.

"They're not mine. The ministry may protest. Pity Voldemort's assassins got old Rufus, he would have sent you a personal thank you letter. This new chap Dawkins, don't know him well, old crony of Fudge's. Very much like him."

"Oh dear." Andrew muttered, rubbing his temples, and people claimed vampires didn't get headaches. Ha. "Any chance Rufus will be able to give a message any time soon?" Few people knew the former minister was alive. He was hidden away with a private set of doctors, trying to get him out of the coma the poisons and brain-wrecking spells and sent him into. They had announced his death, and told only four people otherwise. Since the master of London was helping to find a way to awaken him Farov knew as well.

"Not a chance. He's probably gone for life. They'll keep trying though."

"Will the aurors defy the ministry if…when, it come to war?"

"They already did by sending that letter. They may do so again. I'll contact my old pals and students, see if I can't stir up some trouble." Moody's grin was gleefully nasty. "Now, some questions of my own."

"Very well." The vampire agreed.

"The captured vampires?"

"Locked up in the cells he used last time below the city. The tastiest ones will be at the gathering. They'll be executed afterwards. The others…we'll see. He' snot feeling very merciful." Andrew said, Lord Hadrian was not currently in the mood to grant any leniency, though after keeping them locked up for a century he might. "Why? Interested in coming to the gathering? You know how much fun they are." Andrew said with a challenging leer. Moody snorted and rolled his eyes all the way around.

"Not likely. I know what you walking corpses" Farov glared, Moody smirked and continued, "like to get up to once business is finished and I'm way too old for that kind of stuff."

"Or too scared."

"No, but I never was into necrophilia." Farov's bark of laughter at the old joke caused momentary pause in all other conversation. Moody waited out his mirth, his own twisted smile showing off his scarring. "The mortals?"

"Ah. They were nice. We tested all their blood. They'll be divided up at the gathering. Lord Hadrian is keeping the few best for himself, and Kylara is going to try to retrain some of them so one or two may be released." Moody snorted again, not much chance of that. "She's had success with that in the past. All it takes is a complete change of heart and mind. Once they stop fearing us and begin to cooperate and befriend their owners many former slaves have become reliable allies." Andrew assured him.

"How many did you get?"

"Two, though my master may give me three. If no one else wants them."

"Anyone I'd know?" Now the vampire started grinning, showing both fangs.

"Oh yes. Lucius Malfoy ring a bell?" At Moody's wide eyes he smirked, "must have a gong rather than bell." Moody started laughing. His harsh crackling laughter drawing winces from other diners.

"That good!"

"I thought you might approve." Andrew agreed, "and now my old friend, my secrecy and disguise spells are weakening from the revealment charms being cast by the off-duty auror in the corner. He seems certain I'm no good, keeps casting the spells, but he's not very good at them." He rose and quietly left, Moody waved the waiter over, still chuckling, Rahkesh would really get a laugh out of this, Lucius Malfoy, perhaps Farov would give him a few pictures to send to Rahkesh. Rahkesh would love it, now if they could just nab the son as well they wouldn't have to worry about that clan ever again.

However Narcissa on her own could be a problem. He would have to check on what was happening to her these days. Couldn't be too cautious, constant vigilance.

XXXX

"Rahkesh are you listening?" Silas asked. Rahkesh blinked and looked up, he'd zoned out again. He shook his head and straightened, trying to remember what they were doing.

Erm, sorry." He muttered, he hadn't been aware anyone was talking. He could hear thunder rolling, it seems far away but it was getting louder. Air whipped around him and the electrical power building up in it made him shiver.

Silas was talking again, but Rahkesh's mind was elsewhere already. He could feel his wings beating through the air, and feel lightning crackling over his body.

"Rahkesh!" Rahkesh jumped, and shook his head again to clear away the clouds and flashes of light. He was creating sparks and tiny shocks again. A ferocious cry rang through his mind and he tried to shut it up, but the thunderbird refused to be silenced.

It was dark out, what time had they started this study session? After lunch, that must have been around midday. It felt like no time had passed. He could feel his wings beating; hear the whumping sound they made against the air on each down sweep.

Silas and Daray were watching him warily as if he might transform indoors. Which he might at this rate. He hadn't been able to concentrate on anything but the thunderbird since his transformation. The library was not a good place for that.

Not bothering to explain anything Rahkesh got up and left the library without a word, returning to his rooms and throwing himself onto his bed. He hadn't been able to go to class in days; in fact he hadn't been able to do anything at all since his transformation but think about his animagus form. He didn't remember eating, he hadn't slept. And despite his friend's best efforts he couldn't concentrate of anything.

The door opened and Daray drifted in, followed by his cousin. The vampires put his books, which he'd left in the library, on his desk. Rahkesh not only didn't notice them but didn't even notice his anti-vamp wards going off. The two vampires traded looks and sat down on the couch and armchair.

"Rahkesh?" Silas asked softly.

Rahkesh flinched and jumped upright. The thunderbird magic had been blocking him from feeling the wards.

"Aw crap." He whispered, dropping his head into his hands.

"Indeed." Daray agreed, "apparently this is distracting you enough that you don't notice people sneaking up on you."

Rahkesh ran his fingers through his hair distractedly; already he could feel a faint rumble of thunder that felt like it was flying through his mind. This was very bad.

"Rahkesh, how many days has it been since you transformed?" Daray asked abruptly.

"Um, eight?" Rahkesh guessed, realizing that he had no idea what day of the week it was.

"No, fourteen." Daray said, "I'm calling Namach and the headmistress, whatever they have you working on it isn't working." Rahkesh saw his eyes glaze a little as he reached out telepathically. But, when Rahkesh tried to sense the telepathy, the thunderbird's scream shot through his mind instead and he jumped again. He couldn't even use his mind magics anymore.

Apparently the headmistress had been coming anyway because she arrived only a few second later. Rahkesh was already starting to drift again, seeing crackling flashes of light. The headmistress took one of the armchairs and watched him for a few minutes, feeling the strange raging aura around him and trying to decide how stable he was.

"It's becoming annoyingly constant." Rahkesh muttered, examining his mind from the outside looking in, as the headmistress had asked him to.

"It will only get worse." Nvara told him softly. "Did you try what we discussed last time?" Rahkesh nodded, then opened his eyes when he started feeling the nonexistent feathers and started hearing rolls of thunder. He focused on the others in the room to drown out the thunderbirds persistence.

"It isn't there."

"What isn't?" Silas asked. Nvara opened her mouth to explain but Rahkesh started first. If he kept talking maybe it would distract in subconscious from his animagus.

"If I have one form like the thunderbird I should naturally have another to balance it. Now I know I'm currently developing multiple animagus forms, but none of them are anything like the thunderbird. I've been meditating to search out each form and feel what sort of power it has. None of them can match the thunderbird." He closed his eyes again and took a deep breath as a sudden wave of feeling, as if he were flying, washed over him.

"Rahkesh if you have one form as powerful as the thunderbird there must be _at least_ one more to balance that one. That isn't optional; it's the closest thing to a law of magic as there can be." Nvara pointed out. Rahkesh shrugged helplessly, he knew that it had to be there, but it wasn't.

"Namach says that animagus forms are usually reflected in bloodmagic, and while the dragon blood forced the thunderbird to come into existence many years earlier than it should have the thunderbird was there from the start. Based upon the bloodmagic I've done so far he can determine that there is a focus of sorts about my shoulders and upper back where the wings begin from and two more about my eyes and feet, which are consistent with winged animagi. I haven't done a whole lot of bloodmagic but the fact that those runes that show a winged animagus are already apparent mean that the thunderbird has been with me the longest. That form is one I developed in early childhood; it is probably the first of them to exist." Rahkesh said, trying very hard to ignore the thunderbirds insistent calling, but it had taken over his vision and he could see only mountaintops below his and flashes of lightning in the storm that coated his wings.

Namach had said that had the thunderbird not been pushed to the front by the dragon's blood he might have had time to develop a second form to calm it, but Nvara's meditation exercises had revealed that he didn't even have the beginnings of anything that could halfway block a thunderbird. Namach however claimed that the dragon's blood would not unnecessarily endanger him and so he _had_ to already have something to stop the thunderbird from consuming him. Rahkesh hadn't asked how he could possibly figure that out. He had checked into the relations between bloodmagic and animagi months earlier and been completely bewildered - that stuff wasn't even taught in the regular classes.

"If the thunderbird came about first your magic had plenty of time to find something to match it. But you say that nothing else seems to exist." Nvara said, "If an animagus form is too powerful, or too strongly connected to the person, they usually have another to balance it within the subconscious. Which begs the question of why your magic hasn't self destructed."

"Which means that I'm a magical anomaly." Rahkesh said with a resigned sigh. Daray turned a laugh into a cough and Rahkesh rolled his eyes. Great, more experiments and testing. He heard the thunderbird scream again and thunder rumbled.

"You're doing that again." Silas muttered, glancing out the widow.

"You heard that?" Rahkesh asked.

"That one was real, not just your mind." Daray told him.

The crackling was starting again, waves of magic rolling and swirling around him, cold air over massive wings. Rahkesh blinked and tried to shake himself back to reality. Lightning crashed, this time just in his mind, followed by several massive beats of thunder and the smell of ozone.

The three on the couches and chairs watched as Rahkesh crumpled to the floor from where he'd been leaning against the post at the foot of his bed. Sygra shot down from the headboard and coiled on his chest as they approached, she hissed threateningly and opened her mouth, ready to throw venom at them. They both stopped.

Lightning flashed, this time real lightning. Then electricity began to crackle across Rahkesh's body in patterns not unlike feathers. He convulsed as a loud bang of thunder shook the windows.

"Sygra we're trying to help." Daray told the snake, who didn't understand and rose, raising her hood and getting ready to spit as Silas moved to try to shake Rahkesh awake.

The shape of Rahkesh's' eyes began to change, rolling open to reveal the black and gold – no whites – of the thunderbirds. Nvara had to duck as a bolt of lightning leaped away from him and hit the ceiling. Blasting a charred crater into the stone.

The door banged open then closed as Namach finally arrived. He took one look around and hurried towards Rahkesh, who was shaking as he tried to keep the thunderbird contained.

More thunder sounded, but this time the sound was coming from Rahkesh, sparks of lightning leaped form his body to lash across the floor. The two teachers countered them wandlessly and held the lightning away. Sygra, not harmed, struck at Namach, who moved too fast for the cobra and picked Rahkesh up, placing his fingers on Rahkesh's temples and sending a wave of telepathy through.

Rahkesh heard the thunderbird's scream of fury as another presence appeared and hurled it away from his mind. The intruder slammed the thunderbird aside and drained away the magic it was sending out.

The thunder and lighting stopped.

Abruptly Namach dropped Rahkesh and leaped back, all the way across the room, faster than any of them could see. Then a massive blast of lightning forced them all to the floor as it shot in rippling waves through the air at head height. The air sparkled and the cracks of thunder shook the room.

"I don't think he liked that." Silas said needlessly.

"He does seem to have an immense aversion to any sort of invasive mind magic when he's not entirely conscious." The ancient vampire agreed, remembering how Rahkesh had nearly killed himself rather than let the fae into his mind. "He should have been able to shut down the thunderbird, but instead he chose to allow it to attack rather than have any other magics in his mind."

Sygra, spitting furiously, coiled up again over Rahkesh, the rose up as high as she could and started swaying, watching them all. Rahkesh's eyes rolled and began to glow he began to become blurred as the thunderbird tried to force him to transform.

Namach moved Sygra out of the way with a wave of one hand and tried again. Sending another wave of magic through Rahkesh's mind.

Rahkesh could feel the thunderbird raging, trying to break free. It's fury and sizzling magic filling his mind and senses, leaving no room for thought.

Then another presence appeared, white blinding power followed by a feeling of such icy cold that his mind screamed in pain. A roar sounded, pounding through his skull, followed by more ice and the sensation of two massive presences colliding. Realizing that the thunderbird was distracted with this new invader Rahkesh imagined leashing it and shutting it away. Second later the thunderbird's defiant scream made him clamp his hands over his ears, as if it was actual sound and not coming from within his mind.

Whatever the new creature was the waves of wind and cold and magic it was hurling about slammed the thunderbird back, and Rahkesh could think again. He pressed the thunderbird back further until it was just a dull rustle of feather and low rolls of thunder in the back of his mind.

He opened his eyes, seeing spots at first. He was lying on the couch, Sygra leaning down over him from her spot coiled on the backrest. Silas was casting spells on the walls, which were charred, chipped, and even melted in some places. Daray was putting out a fire on the armchair.

"A good thing you have such strong wards, I don't think anyone noticed." The headmistress said, coming into view.

"What was that?" Rahkesh asked, his voice was hoarse and his throat hurt, as if he had been screaming.

"Best not to talk, thunderbird calls were not meant to come from a human throat." Namach's deep voice came from across the room. Rahkesh glanced over and saw the vampire was wandlessly repairing his bed and desk, which were shattered and blackened.

"It almost got you that time. Tristan used his own animagus to convince it to back off a bit. But that's not going to last." The headmistress warned him. Rahkesh nodded and reached up to pet Sygra, she wrapped herself around his arm and slid down onto his chest.

_You know, I was having a nap._ She told him, not pleased with his timing. _And what are you doing turning into a bird anyway? Snakes are much superior._

Rahkesh wanted to hiss a reply, but everything was fading quickly. As he passed out again Sygra flared her hood and arched up to glare at the four moving about the room.

"Parselmagic." Namach said suddenly, watching the snake as she swayed threateningly over her unconscious master.

"What?" Silas asked.

"Parselmagic, he's a parseltongue so he can do the snake magics. Parseltongues have an additional non-human form. A snake. What type of snake depends upon the individual." Namach explained quickly. "He couldn't find an animagus to match the thunderbird because he _doesn't have one_. His parselmagic provided its own counter."

"I don't think Rahkesh has practiced any of the parselmagics in depth. He never had the time and his guardian who trained him apparently didn't like parselmagic much, probably thought it was dark magic, which is of course evil." Daray said sarcastically. Rahkesh's complete lack of interest in the snake magic was a source of ongoing argument amongst them.

"Well, that parselmagic has apparently decided to take the place of another animagus, since he couldn't handle creating more than one that powerful." Namach said. Sygra finally seemed to decided they weren't going to try to harm her master and coiled up on his chest.

XXXX

_If you try to eat me you are in big trouble, and by trouble I mean dead._ Sygra warned him. Rahkesh looked up to see his familiar coiled warily up on a rocky ledge just above his head.

"What did she say?" Daray asked from his position flopped on a pile of very sharp and uncomfortable looking rocks. He had the ability to lounge on any surface, and was apparently actually comfortable, or just very good at acting.

"Threatened to kill me if I tried to eat her when I transform."

"I'd be more worried if she tried to eat you." Silas said. He'd been a little worried about his own familiar eating him ever since he'd learned his animagus form was significantly smaller than the large panther.

"Can't wait to see Nuri chasing your six legged venomous mousey arse around trying to eat you." Daray purred, he'd been teasing his cousin mercilessly.

"It doesn't have fur and it isn't a mouse…and I don't know how many limbs it has." Silas growled, "now shut yer fanged trap and let Rahkesh concentrate."

Namach bit back a chuckle at the two younger vampires, "yes please, if either of you starts up again you'll both be part of the menu at the master of London's gathering." The two younger vampires quailed in what appeared to be real fear, and nodding quickly.

Word of Lord Hadrian's plans had spread like wildfire, it had been a long time since all the old ones got together, and this time they were discussing war. The vampire students were very excited, and, in the habit of young of all species, were each going on about how great the master of whatever area they were from was compared to the others. The ruthlessness/power of the ruler of your home city/country/territory seemed to be something the young took a sort of personal pride in. Which seemed completely ridiculous to Rahkesh, but there were enough vampires in the school that he wasn't about to voice that opinion.

"Remember, first speak, and then start searching for where that power of language comes from. This is a type of deeper mind magic so you'll need to find the threads of magic and follow them into your own mind. I know that sounds crazy but once you start speaking parseltongue the magic will awaken and create a strong enough tether between your outer mind and magical center so that it should be easy to sense the source." Nvara told him. The headmistress had decided to be present, and had, after much pleading from the two, allowed Rahkesh's vampire friends to join them. On the off chance his form was exceedingly venomous Ally and Tyler hadn't even asked. Rianae, showing remarkably more common sense then Daray and Silas, had decided she didn't feel like risking having a fang stuck through her head and wasn't present either. Namach claimed he could overpower whatever Rahkesh turned into. Rahkesh didn't doubt that, he just hoped he'd have enough presence of mind not to go after the headmistress, who could kill him in a heartbeat, or either of his friends, whom he might eat if the serpent was big enough to regard them as edible.

Then again, vampires were already dead and he didn't think many snakes would willingly eat something that wasn't alive, that hadn't been alive since becoming a walking corpse only one year after being born. So they were probably safe. From him, Namach had tossed them both off the mountainside once already for the incessant chattering.

_If I turn into something that might eat you you can transform. There aren't too many serpents willing to go after a wyvern, and you'll be able to fly away._ He told the black cobra. When she began to reply he closed his eyes and sank inwards, searching for the parseltongue magic.

_Yes, and if I fly away you might switch to the thunderbird and fry me. If I'm going to be eaten I'd prefer to be eaten fresh thanks, cooked meat is disgusting._ Sygra said fatalistically, she had apparently decided that there was no way out of being eaten by one or the other of his animagus forms.

_Even if I have changed shape we are still connected and it is unlikely that I would eat you in any form._ He told her, he could sense the parseltongue magic fairly easily; it was being snakelike. He'd assumed it would act like a snake and it was, twisting slowly about in his mind. Avoiding all thoughts and all mental functions, like a serpent through a thick jungle.

_So I start screaming telepathically when you try to bite me? _Sygra grouched. She flicked her tail around, a sure sign of nerves, then she raised her head and looked over the edge of the ledge again. _You know, I do have several venoms, and we know one is a sleep agent. _

_Yes, that might work. Oh and use that on Daray if he tries to dye my snake form any ridiculous colors. _Rahkesh requested, just imagining himself becoming a wonderful orange and black and pink python. Silas had a camera and he'd never hear the end of it. Sygra hissed her amusement.

_What if the colors aren't ridiculous?._

_This is Daray we're talking about; they will be ridiculous. I'd rather not be turned into a pink and blue anaconda._ He had the magic now, following it, he wasn't sure what he was looking for, but Namach, who had known several parseltongues in his long life, had said they had all described it a little differently. He should try to get inside the parseltongue magic, and search for his reflection, as a snake.

_Can I use the acid?_ Sygra asked, she could also spit acid. Very accurately. He had chosen well when he'd gotten her for a pet.

_I suppose, it's not like it would permanently harm him._

Rahkesh waded around in his mind, finally wrapping the threads of magic tightly around him and attempting to do as Namach had suggested, find his snake reflection and become it.

Easier said than done, the minute he began to open his mind and let the parseltongue magic wash into his consciousness he started finding a lot more than just an image.

Along the threads of magic there were voices, and lives, calling out, sending bolts of parselmagic into him. It took Rahkesh several minutes to realize that he was finding information, _knowledge_ contained in the parseltongue magic, placed there by every previous parseltongue as far back as the beginning of the snake magics.

He caught little snippets of things, small slices of information concerning parselmagic. Knowing he didn't have long, the thunderbird was starting to act up again, he set them aside, the task of sorting through everything contained in the parselmagic would take a very long time, and it was all very fragmented. He was looking for himself, not the names and characteristics of every snake species to ever exist.

Leaving the knowledge contained in his magic behind he opened his mind again and waited for an image to come to him.

But nothing came. Trying a different tactic Rahkesh took the parseltongue magic and called it into his physical being, and allowed it to manifest itself however it would.

This time he felt something change. He was so deep into his mind and magic that he had little input form the real world at all, but he could no longer feel his arms or legs, and for a moment he nearly panicked.

Then the pain started, sparking along his spine and ribs and running down to his tailbone. Rahkehs bit back a scream as his spine grew hundreds more vertebrae and his ribs and lungs extended. The rearrangement of his internal organs hurt horribly, but Rahkesh needed whatever form the parselmagic was giving him so he kept going letting the magic take over and change him. Slowly the pain subsided. His senses had changed, and while he could not feel his arms or legs he didn't feel like he was missing them either. Momentarily he could hear, then his eyes change and he felt his nose vanish. He couldn't smell, but snakes could smell he had to be able to somehow. They smelt with their tongues. Rahkesh flicked his tongue out and in and a wave of smells washed over him. The scent of the vampires - dead but alive - felt wrong and struck some warning deep within the snakeish part of him. Then he calmed himself with a deep breath and forced his eyes open.

He was falling off the ledge. Rahkesh noticed this first and without thinking backed up, curling back onto the massive plateau they had selected for the transformation.

Only the plateau didn't seem so massive anymore.

Formerly it had been where an Akren student, needing space for some sort of magical experiment, had cut the top off one of the lower peaks, leaving a huge flat area. But Rahkesh was almost too large to fit onto it.

The three vampires ad the headmistress were standing beside him, he could see them, in full color. So whatever he was it could see color. They looked rather puny. In fact it seemed that the top of his eye ridge was nearly a foot above Namach's head. Rahkesh raised his head and looked back over his now nonexistent shoulder.

He was coiled around and the ledge, how long he was Rahkesh could not tell, but with his body moving to get away from all the edges the only open space was where the four humans were standing near his head.

"Well you needed a powerful form, and you certainly got it." Namach said approvingly.

_What am I?_ Rahkesh asked, only to realize he was speaking parseltongue.

_Big. _Sygra complained, _too big, you nearly squashed me._ Her ledge had been shattered by his transformation, she crossed the small open area and coiled up Namach's legs into his arms, hiding behind his hands. _Don't eat me?_

_You're too small. Wouldn't be worth it._ Rahkesh replied. Sygra apparently found that insulting, and glared at him.

Rahkesh looked around at the others and tilted his head to the side in question. Knowing they couldn't read snake body signals like he could, after well over a year with Sygra, he pushed a thought outward, a question that all four of them caught. What am I?

"An Asian Basilisk." Namach answered.

What? Rahkesh thought, he knew what Basilisks were, but he hadn't known there were different breeds.

"An Asian Basilisk, there are three, well theoretically four, different species. No one's ever actually seen the fourth type. By your size it's still fairly young. They grow throughout their lifespan. They're also very powerful magically." Namach said, he was holding a small book with a four headed basilisk on the cover, and color pictures and descriptions inside. "The other Parseltongues I knew said their magic could tell them things about snakes, is this true for you as well?"

Thinking about it Rahkesh realized that he could have figured that out for himself, the information stored in the parselmagic probably contained everything possible to know about every type of snake. He would have to meditate on it later.

Yes. He replied.

"Is the thunderbird quiet?" Nvara asked. Rahkesh closed his eyes and searched. He found the thunderbird readily enough; it was near the surface and as powerful and destructive as ever, if roused, but it was quiet now. Sleeping, waiting. As the snake would be when he became human again. It and the snake were well balanced. If only he could keep them from warring within his mind…but they weren't so maybe that wouldn't be an issue.

It is quiet. He agreed. His mind was his own again, and he had two of the most fearsome creatures in the world at his command. Oh Voldemort was going to cry when they next met.

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Those who like Ron, sorry. It needed to happen. For the greater good and all eh?

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Reviews please!

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Happy Holidays (grin, I thought an update in time for the Holiday would make everyone happy.)

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	29. Chapter 29

Icedragon925 – you have ESP, how did you guess?

Lady Sermik – oh thank you for offering! That would be wonderful!

Alathon – thank you for the thoughtful review

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Chapter 29

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"Two hundred! In one night!" Silas said, "three weeks and there won't be a single young vampire left on the entire continent!"

"Not a bad thing - it makes room for us." Someone else commented.

"I'm just going to guess you're talking about the Master of London's gathering?" Rahkesh asked from the doorway. A half dozen of the vampires were gathered in Daray's rooms, sharing information. Being vampires the fact that it was well past midnight didn't bother them a bit. They only needed a few hours of sleep a night.

"Yes. There's been little word getting out about what's going on, but it's hard to not notice a sudden disappearance of two hundred vampires. Voldemort's lackeys of course." Rianae said.

Rahkesh smiled and twisted his head sideways to read the label on the glittery neon green wine bottle on the coffee table. _Mao Zedong_, someone had very expensive tastes in blood. One of Daray's relatives had probably snatched it from one of their victims. Vampires collected good blood, or famous blood. He'd seena bottle labeled _Jesus_ in Namach's display case where he showed off a few of his more interesting blood collections.

"What will the mortals say about that?" One of the vampires Rahkesh didn't know asked him.

"They don't read vampire newspapers, they probably don't know. If they did they'd probably call it some diabolical plot. Well many of them would. This isn't going to change what they think any, especially the ones in power." Rahkesh said slowly. Some Ministry members would take note, and it seemed likely that the aurors and unspeakables read vampire newspapers, especially the last few months.

"Figures. Ignorant fools." Someone muttered.

"There's been some speculation that the reason for the gathering was to find a way to cut deal with the mortals." Rahkesh said in reply to the insult.

"What?"

"Never!"

"Who the hell told you that?"

"Did you just call the vampires elders cowards?"

The resulting uproar was exactly what he had hoped for. Shacklebolt wanted an opinion on the likelihood of that scenario.

"Better not let any of the elders hear you said that." Daray warned. "I think Namach might personally skin anyone who suggested it." Which was probably true. The ancient was looking forward to the war between the elders and the younger vampires and the human vampire conflicts. He seemed to think the current likelihood of a positive outcome was excellent. Privately Rahkesh agreed. If only Voldemort could be removed, and he and his allies were making some progress there.

The vampires had gone back to discussing the numbers of vampires the elders had killed off, Lord Hadrian had apparently kept his best agents following the best of Voldemort's vampires and had killed them all off in one go, as the initial feast of the gathering. Rahkesh left when they started on some of the more intricate politics and who was likely to do what, half the time he didn't understand it and the rest of the time it wasn't stuff he really wanted to hear. He'd heard enough about vampire get togethers from Moody to know he didn't want any details.

_A few serpents with the right venom and there wouldn't be a vampire problem_. Sygra suggested sleepily, the snake was coiled up on his pillow.

_What snake's venom works on what is already dead?_ Rahkesh asked, even his Basilisk's gaze only gave them a dull headache, unless he really tried in which case he might manage to petrify one of the weaker vampires. A Basilsik's gaze didn't have any effect at all on any magical vampire over five centuries, unless they were ridiculously weak, in which case they wouldn't live that long.

_I should think you could answer that question._ Sygra reminded him gently; Rahkesh had yet to get around to working with his parselmagic. However he had started work on a book of snake species, identification methods, and anti-venoms, pulling the information from what was stored in the magics that gave him parseltongue. Rahkesh sank into one of his armchairs and called the parselmagic and began a search.

_I don't think there are any_. Rahkesh said finally, _at least, none that would kill a vampire. Make them ill and weak maybe, and Basilisk venom would send them into a coma, but nothing that would kill them._

_Pity_. Sygra hissed, _anything about me?_

_No._ Rahkesh said, he had looked to his parselmagic for information on what species Sygra might be, but had found nothing. No matter how deep into a meditative trance he went, or where he searched in the parselmagic he found nothing relating to Sygra. Perhaps she was more wyvern than serpent, there wasn't anything on wyverns in the magic, despite their close relation to snakes.

A faint whistling sound caught Rahkesh's attention and he flipped open the top drawer of his desk and drew out a square sheet of woven hippocampus hair stretched onto a wooden frame. He'd waited up until almost one, despite having an early exam the next day, waiting for this. He cast a few glamour spells to make him appear more like Harry Potter and tilted the sheet to face him. Pricking his little finger on the tiny needle sticking from one corner he dabbed a drop of blood onto the center of the sheet.

A blue ripple grew outwards from the droplet and the hippocampus hair became a visual and audio two way communication device. It was one of the better methods he'd found for communicating and it utilized bloodmagic that required very fresh blood, so it would be hard for anyone to steal it and use it.

A blurry image that was probably Shacklebolt's face appeared on the hippocampus sheet, his copy was hidden on the backside of a painting in his office, and only someone who knew a little bit about bloodmagic could possibly recognize it. Bloodmagic being "dark" Rahkesh was sure no one in the Ministry would have the faintest clue what it was even if they did notice it was unusual.

Shacklebolt's face came into focus and Rahkesh examined the background behind the auror for anything unusual or any sign of distress on Shacklebolt's face, he found nothing out of the ordinary.

"Hey Harry, we were getting worried its been over two weeks." Shacklebolt said.

Rahkesh smiled, Shacklebolt and Moody had appointed themselves his unofficial guardians and checked in every few weeks. How much of their concern was for the boy-who-could-kill-Voldemort and how much was for him as a person Rahkesh hadn't asked. He suspected Moody didn't care all that much about his role in the war – merely assuming Rahkesh would do his part because Voldemort would never leave him alone, and Shacklebolt probably wouldn't know how to answer. Mostly they talked about the rapid pace of events, mostly bad, and Rahkesh sent over information his got from the vampires about their opinions and their parents opinions. Since most the Akren vampire students had parents critically involved in the vampiric community they usually knew what was going to happen and why.

Of course the Ministry never listened to Shacklebolt much, too absorbed with themselves the politicians took whatever he said and used it for their own ends, often inaccurately. But it was all on record. And a copy of every one of the records, and all other Ministry documents resided in a Gringotts vault that the goblins would never destroy. Left over from a time when the Ministry held itself accountable for everything and wouldn't allow anyone to get away with much. And that would matter in the end; they could never say they hadn't been warned.

"I was having some issues. Nothing bad, very good actually. Animagus training has been difficult." He explained quickly. Shacklebolt nodded and didn't inquire further, Rahkesh liked that about Shacklebolt and Moody, they didn't stick their noses into his life and accepted whatever he felt like telling them. If he couldn't contact them for a few weeks he had no obligation to give a reason and they wouldn't try to make him. Moody knew what Akren was like and Shacklebolt, while he might not know its name or location, had probably a good idea by now about what Harry's new school was like.

"The vampires offered us a way out with the Azkaban raid, didn't they?" Shacklebolt said.

"Yes, the only one they're going to give. It all could have stopped then. It won't now, not until it's finished." Rahkesh replied. The conversation was being recorded on his end only; Shacklebolt would put this down in the records in his own words, mostly, with the source as a well trusted informant, with a codename Rahkesh didn't know, who had never been wrong. The fact that everything this informant had said had been proven to be true would be noticed by whoever went over the records after the war. Which would certainly give Shacklebolt's career a jump, if he was still alive.

"The Ministry won't take it. They're not going to back down. Someone proposed it and other people, Umbridge and her crowd, attacked him for being a coward. They think to go back would be cowardly and weak and that we can only go forward."

"Which makes them desperate to win, they'll do anything now to avoid being wrong and losing. That makes them very dangerous." Rahkesh said, "be sure you don't advise too loudly."

"They're already angry at me for saying the intelligent thing to do would be to reconsider." Shacklebolt said with a shrug. "I'll be keeping quiet for the next few weeks."

"So they think they're stuck and the only way they can see to get out is to go to war and win at any cost. Great. Do you think Voldemort planned that?"

"What do you think?" Shacklebolt asked back with a growl. "Higher tensions, the "light" side desperate and willing to sacrifice anything, including the rights of their citizens. The ministry will become so oppressive a lot of people will welcome him and when he takes over they won't lose anything they haven't already lost. Of course he planned it. Damn good move too."

"Well he didn't get to where he is by being stupid." Rahkesh said. No, he'd done it by being very clever…but after many years as a mostly disembodied spirit exactly how much of the original brilliance and sanity remained? "Have you contacted other magical schools?"

"Yeah, they'll help. Very enthusiastic about it. There won't be a single muggleborn going to any school in Europe next year. And most of the magical students will be gone too."

"And exposed to a different way of life. There's a good chance the parents will follow their children once things get a bit worse at home. We could see a mass exodus from Europe." Moody said, coming into view behind Shacklebolt. "But we're going to need some inside help, people who know the countries involved and can speak the language."

"Working on it. Know Hermione Granger?"

"Of course, bright young witch." Moody said.

"She'll get a group together and start working in the UK, she'll contact you for help later, she's busy with her NEWTs right now."

"You got the letter she sent to you." Moody said.

"I got it." Rahkesh said, Hermione, being her usual methodical and intelligent self, had done some research and made her decision. She wanted to be in charge of working with other schools to send their students to talk to muggleborns. Organizing the whole program. Rahkesh had already recommended her to a few schools to help them get organized. She had already recruited Seamus and a handful of other students a year or two older to help. Ron however was still being an imbecile; Rahkesh would have to find time to talk with him at some point.

"Fleur and her sister send their best; they'll be working in France with some friends." Moody told him, which was what Rahkesh had been hoping for.

"I'll talk to Victor Krum, get him to get some of his Durmstrang friends involved. They're not all dark you know. Going to Durmstrang they got to see all sides and make a choice, many of them don't side with Voldemort and I know Victor doesn't."

"If you trust him." Shacklebolt said, sounding dubious about the famous seeker.

"I do." Rahkesh said, he'd only seen Victor a few times, meetings carefully arrange by Rahkesh, but they'd talked a lot and next time they met Rahkesh would run the idea past him. The team usually went out to eat at least three times wherever they were playing and Rahkesh had arranged his two previous meeting with Krum by trailing them to whatever restaurant they had chosen and signaling Krum that he was there. Better than anyone Krum understood why Harry was so careful about no one finding him and avoiding any publicity. "The Weasely twins also have friends from Durmstrang, met them during the TriWizard Tournament, they say they're reliable, from Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Hungary."

"I've got Germany and Denmark covered. And possibly a few other places, I've called up some old friends from school and they really getting into this. Bringing in their relatives and anyone they know and trust. A couple of them have children too so the muggleborns will have younger people to vouch for places outside their homeland schools." Moody said.

"How about sending students from other schools over here, a language spell and potion combination would work well enough for a few days." Rahkesh suggested.

"We suggested that. The American and Australian schools jumped on the idea like a lion on a cripple gazelle. They're pissed off over the anti vampire and werewolf thing. And when I say pissed I mean _really_ angry. They'll do almost anything to screw the Ministries that allowed such laws. They're making it a required part of the curriculum for the last year of schooling their students have to do. Exposure to foreign cultures class or something. An assignment in place of summer homework." Shacklebolt said, "we sent Remus to the werewolf packs and he's been an excellent middle man between the schools and us."

"Charlie Weasely is in New Zealand, he's organizing something with their schools and a few of the Indonesian ones." Moody added, "I think we've got that covered well enough." Rahkesh nodded, one less thing for him to worry about, he'd talk to Victor and hopefully there wouldn't be any crises to work out. "We should get McGonagal-"

"Way ahead of you lad, got her in on it three months ago." Moody said with a twisted grin. Rahkesh nodded with a sheepish smile, he should have guessed Moody would have thought of that a long time ago.

"Oh and I have some good news." Shacklebolt said, "my counterparts in Spain and Portugal let me know that they're Ministry's are getting ready to place official protests with the EU and the UN in a few months over the anti dark creature/magic laws. The Ministry will hopefully be too distracted by that to do much of anything. Should stall everyone."

"Excellent. How is Regulus?"

"Very well. He's got us the location of Voldemort's hide out, all the entrances and exits, and the two foundation stones the wards are attached too. He also got information from a death eater – apparently Voldemort has the cup in his rooms. Gotta love Vertisarum, truth spells and babbling potions." Moody said with a smirk. Rahkesh guessed he and Regulus were getting along very well, which was surprising since Regulus had, for a very short time, been a death eater.

"I'll leave that to you then, I'm working on a method for safely destroying the horcruxes. It is possible to destroy a soul with bloodmagic, it's way ahead of where I am but there're some good books in the library. If necessary I can bring one of the professors here in on this to help." Rahkesh said, what had happened to Saul had inspired him to try the same thing with the horcruxes, they were just pieces of a soul after all. And whatever Namach had done with Saul had completely destroyed his soul. He thought Namach would be willing to help, but he wasn't ready to talk to the ancient about it yet. If Voldemort's existence was useful to Namach then the ancient would stop him. Better to wait. "The only drawback would be that we'd need a little of Voldemort's blood."

"Which would be almost impossible to get. I'll have Regulus start thinking up ways to manage that. Perhaps we can come up with something." Moody said.

"Have you had any word from the vampire gathering?" Rahkesh asked.

"A little. They invited me to a revel but I declined, I've never been into vampiric sex parties." Moody said, drawing a disgusted look from Shacklebolt and a laugh from Rahkesh. "Lord Hadrian has his minions bringing in young muggle vampires by the score. There aren't that many vampires among the elders, but the turnout for this was better than any other gathering in the last thousand years. And they all prefer to feed from other vampires." Moody said. "Oh and Lord Hadrian served the last remaining blood from Gilgamesh." Shacklebolt, who didn't know a whole lot about vampires, turned to stare at the ex-auror in a sort of horrified disbelief.

"The reason for the high turnout no doubt." Rahkesh said dryly. Moody gave him a twisted grin. "I didn't hear about that from my friends."

"It hasn't hit the vampire newspapers, probably won't, the historians would be upset." Moody explained.

"There's speculation that all the young vampires in Europe could be wiped out within a few weeks." Rahkesh said.

"Not likely, Andrew Farov said there were several hundred vampires in England alone that don't have permission to be here and shouldn't exist. And England is pretty small. But they'll make a sizeable dent. However I can confirm that the master of Japan is going to rid the islands of every vampire whose presence he didn't approve, all of them. And the mast of South Korea is following as are the three masters of Australia." Moody said. "Anything from your end?"

"The Ateres assassins have been called to deal with every person who pushed that anti-vampire legislation through. All of them. In all of the countries, the entire clan is converging on Europe." Rahkesh said. Daray and Silas were very excited. They were hoping to join their family that summer killing off the politicians who had outlawed their kind. Rahkesh's blood went cold every time he thought of his two friends possibly ending up in his home. The less contact they had with his homeland the safer he was from being found out.

"I'll tell the coffin makers." Moody said, "you know I don't approve of killing, but if there's no other option, and the world will be better off for it, and safer…"

"You can't change all their minds. And don't say you wouldn't want to see Umbridge go."

"So long as I don't have to watch. I always wish there was some other way."

"I think the vampires are calling the shots right now, best to go along and try to calm them later. At some point they'll have to safe the public and change their opinions." Rahkesh pointed out.

"I think I'll put all this down as coming from the same source okay?" Shacklebolt said.

"Just remember no names or places or recognizable speech patterns." Moody growled. "It is true that we might just get most of the dark creature/magic laws repealed once things heat up and the assassins have finished."

"I'm working on that myself. Starting with bloodmagic and Parseltongue. Never thought I'd be glad I'm famous, but I can use my name to get attention drawn to this." Rahkesh said.

"What are you going to do?"

"Write a book. Talk to the Prophet. Did you know that the greatest healer ever, Aesculapius, was a Parselmouth? Actually as far as anyone knows he was one of the first. Most Parselmouth's have an extreme talent with healing. I'm afraid mine may have been destroyed by taking that killing curse, but the others seem to be naturally skilled."

"I didn't know that, how do you know?" Shacklebolt asked.

"There is a reason why the Greek symbol for medicine has a snake on it. That badge the mediwizards wear with a staff and serpent. One serpent is a healer, two serpents is a parselmouth healer, originally. The meaning of the symbol has been lost a long time now." Rahkesh said, "I've looked up Parselmouth alumni and talked to two of them. I'll be contacting Mungo's soon. Their two best are Parselmouths."

"You're joking." Shacklebolt said.

"Nope. And there are four other world known healers who are also Parselmouths. And the two I've spoken to are very old vampires who remember a time when Parselmouths were revered for their healing skills. There is also a memory, preserved in the vampiric records, from one of the first Parselmouths, who was also the greatest healer to ever live. Think the Prophet will go for it? I think they will, especially if I remind them that Merlin was a Parselmouth."

"Are you kidding? They'd pay for that story." Moody said, smirking, "I must remember to put a camera in Umbridge's office."

"What about the bloodmagic?" Shacklebolt asked.

"I'll just point out that many "incurable" diseases can be cured with bloodmagic as can most deformities and genetic defects including blindness and minor retardation. It can also bring people out of comas and in some cases stop the insanity caused by over exposure to the cruciatus curse. Think of all the people who know people whose lives would be better if bloodmagic had been used to save them? And that's bloodmagic using the blood of the person being helped, no human sacrifices involved." Rahkesh said. It was a mystery how such knowledge had gotten lost; one would think that people would remember something so useful. But dark wizards using sacrificial bloodmagic had turned society against all of it. It was time to change that.

"Starts off with bloodmagic and Parseltongue, goes on to other areas like using necromancy to solve murders." Moody said softly, "that's a lot like what they did in Australia and New Zealand a few decades ago, worked well there, and the British ministry condemned them for it without actually listening."

"How long will that take?" Shacklebolt asked.

"A While. I'm awfully busy and the two vampires I want to help me with the book are incommunicado at Lord Hadrian's gathering. Next year maybe." Rahkesh said. The vampires had been enthusiastic about helping to break down the phobia of anything considered "dark" by showing people that it wasn't actually evil. Once people started thinking instead of just listening to what the frightened weaklings at the Ministry told them they might reconsider vampires as well.

"Any chance it could backfire by helping Voldemort?" Shacklebolt asked.

"So long as we make it clear he uses necromancy and bloodmagic and other dark magics that do harm and require death and mass murder, make a clear distinction, it shouldn't be a problem. It should be possible to word all the newspaper articles so that it sounds like it's his and other evil wizards fault for causing so many people to miss out on the curative powers of bloodmagic. And make the Ministry seem like a truck load of idiots for not catching on." Moody said with a gleefulness that made Rahkesh snicker. The old auror seemed very enthusiastic about ruining the Ministry.

"Anything else happening?" Rahkesh asked.

"Not really. A lot of people praying for your return actually." Moody said, knowing Rahkesh hated that.

"Maybe I should just kill myself, then they'll grow their own backbone." Rahkesh muttered.

"Suicide is a cowards way out." Shacklebolt said disapprovingly.

"Usually I'd agree. However suicide is also a way of telling god "I don't like my destiny so I quit."" Rahkesh said, "and I didn't mean that. My death would make Voldemort happy, which is bad, and anyway I haven't gotten a chance to attempt the Reverse Cruelty curse on his soul yet." Shacklebolt gave him a confused look.

"The what?"

"An ingenious piece of soul magic that causes the person, once dead, to experience everything they have every done to harm, physically or emotionally, anyone else, ever. It goes through it all several times, the number of times decided by the amount of power and skill behind the curse, then lets the soul go." Rahkesh explained. It was an extremely advanced piece of magic, but he had been studying it for a few weeks and was beginning to understand the working of it a little bit. It was horribly complex but by the time all the horcruxes were destroyed he might manage to figure it all out. Soul magic that advanced required the caster to know everything about the spell they were casting from their own reasons for casting, to the origins of the magics, to the source of the information the spell used.

"Still going into soul magic eh?" Moody said.

"Yeah." Rahkesh said shortly, and didn't continue. It had occurred to him that his experience with the killing curse left him a very unique connection with death, one that would be revealed when he truly began his training. He could pass it off as his near death experience with the dragon's blood and Amadan's curse for a time, but he hadn't actually died then. The killing curse had established the connection, and such connections took time to grow. And the dragon's blood had given life as much as it had nearly taken it, which left him with only the Amadan's curse as a cover.

"Alright we'll talk later. Be careful if you decide to visit, the Ministry is looking for you." Shacklebolt said.

"Wants their little poster boy back on a leash and in a kennel." Moody muttered.

"This dog likes to bite. Send me Regulus's list of death eaters in the Ministry and I'll see what I can do. My cover won't last more than another year anyway and when it goes I'll come out in favor of the vampires. _After_ I start publishing the stuff about Parselmouths." Rahkesh replied. "Give the Ministry something to really get upset about."

"Be careful about that, the public doesn't like vampires any more than the Ministry does." Shacklebolt said.

"I think the public would be shocked to learn that vampires give more to charity, and other good causes such as medical research, in the UK every year than the magicalhuman and werewolf populations combined. And vampires don't even need medical research themselves." Rahkesh replied. He was right, they were shocked. He had been shocked too when he found out, but then Rianae had explained that every vampire killed their victims when they were younger, before they learned to feed without killing, and many still killed accidentally. And most of them felt a little guilty about that. If putting muggle orphans through college made them feel better, they certainly had the resources. A vampire who put a few gold bricks into a bank five hundred years ago would have a substantial amount of interest built up.

XXXX

"I've got a headache starting." Silas said, looking away from the basilisk's emerald eyes. Rianae clicked the stopwatch.

"Eight minutes. You're getting better." She told the basilisk, and received a pleased hiss in reply from the green, gold, and black snake.

"Or I'm getting tired." Silas replied, "we've been at this for hours."

They were testing Rahkesh's killing gaze on the vampires. It was something basilisk's did naturally but in order to kill quickly with it he needed to practice. The vampires also got practice at brushing off the effects of the basilisk's gaze so everyone benefited. He could petrify the vampires, but that took actual conscious effort, more than the regular killing gaze did because he had to overpower their healing abilities. Rahkesh was starting to get the hang of using his gaze to kill ordinary creatures, but he hadn't attempted to petrify the vampires yet. There were mandrakes in one of the greenhouses but the potion took a few weeks to brew so they were waiting until it was almost complete before Rahkesh attempted to petrify them.

"Perhaps that's enough for today then?" Daray asked. Rahkesh hissed and began to transform. It was uncomfortable, for all that the basilisk was supposed to be his serpent reflection. The shifting hurt and his bones ached, especially his limbs as they grew back. The magical changes in his eyes and skin pulled at his strength, draining him quickly. When he was finally human again Rahkesh collapsed onto one of the transfigured couches set up in the cavern. His vision darkened and for a moment he couldn't see or hear right. Then slowly everything came back, Rahkesh pulled out a knife and drew it along the lines of some of his bloodmagic runes. The runes burned gold and magic flowed around him, slowly his head stopped spinning. Rahkesh pushed the bloodmagic back beneath the surface and the glowing lines faded.

"Well you didn't pass out this time. That's a first." Daray said.

"Only a matter of time, I'm exhausted." Rahkesh replied.

"Well you did just go from having several hundred ribs to twenty-four, and regenerated four limbs." Rianae said. "Namach said it took months of practice for the other parseltongues he knows to manage a transformation without being horribly exhausted, and none of them were basilisks."

"Two of them were, but they're both dead now." Rahkesh replied, "took them most of a year."

"They were also adults; therefore their basilisk forms were larger than yours. It shouldn't take you that long." Daray pointed out.

"Well I've had all I can handle for one day and you all have headaches so I think that's enough." Rahkesh said. "Besides I hear Tyler and Ally coming." Minutes later the two girls showed up, to find the vampires and Rahkesh working on bloodmagic homework.

Ally knew what Rahkesh's snake form was, but Tyler did not and Rahkesh had avoided telling her. No one had actually told her he was a parseltmouth; all she knew was that he had a snake animagus. And Rahkesh hoped she wouldn't guess. He might not be able to keep Harry Potter and Rahkesh Asmodaeus separate forever, but he was going to try. The vampires he had talked to about writing a book on parselmouths knew Harry Potter, not Rahkesh. He'd even faked the magical signature of his former self, quite convincingly too if the way the Ministry had gone after it the last time he'd set foot in his homeland had been any indication.

"You're going to cut your throat." Ally stated as she looked over Rahkesh's shoulder at the chronological list of what he needed to do. "Do you have a death wish?"

"It's necessary. This set is used to filter your blood and remove things like poisons." Daray said.

"It works well enough with only establishing exit points for the contaminants at the wrists but if it's a neurotoxin then it won't do you any good to have the exit points at the wrists. The blood may get to the brain before it gets to the wrists. There are an awful lot of poisons and potions that impact the brain. Therefore it is a good idea to establish exits points at the shoulder/neck junction and one on the throat, which is only used for real emergencies." Rahkesh explained. He wasn't looking forward to any of this but it was a required piece of bloodmagic.

"There aren't all that many rituals bloodmagic/necromancy students are required to complete, this is one of them." Silas said.

"Why?" Tyler asked.

"Because some necromancy summonings or other magics require you to nearly kill yourself with certain poisons, you need to be able to remove those poisons quickly. But losing a lot of blood could send you into shock when your mind is at the boundary between death and life. This filters the blood and removes only the poisons." Daray said. "It can also be used to remove blood damaged by bloodmagic mistakes, giving you a better chance of survival if you ever mess up."

"I thought you died if you messed up." Ally said.

"You usually do. This can save your life, if you don't die trying to do it." Rahkesh said. "This particular piece of bloodmagic has one of the highest death rates of any because many people vomit, faint, or drop the knife when trying to slit their wrists. If any of that happens you die. A lot of people just can't do it."

"And you think you can?" Tyler asked dubiously.

"It's easier for vampires." Daray replied.

"It'll be very difficult, but I think I can manage it." Rahkesh said.

"Can I have the invisibility cloak when you die?" Ally asked, as if he hadn't spoken.

"I charmed it to grow teeth and eat people who try to steal it…but I haven't managed to get it to let me use it yet, or anyone else. It's decided to just eat everyone." Rahkesh said, ducking his head when they all started laughing. He'd been trying to keep it safe, but the charms hadn't worked quite right and now it attacked every time he tried to use it. After being chased around his room by an invisible piece of fabric with fangs Rahkesh had locked it in his trunk and hadn't found the time to try to fix it yet. Partially because if anyone ever saw him being chased down the hall by a cloak with teeth he'd never live it down.

XXXX

Rahkesh stared down at the knife he was holding juts over his wrist, delicate swirling runes dripping a little blood from shallow cuts covered his body, along the lines of the major veins and arteries. He had to at least puncture one of the major veins, and while it had been easy to figure out which and how to minimize actually damage staring down at his wrist Rahkesh wasn't sure if he could.

He wasn't normally squeamish about anything, and he'd done bloodmagic that required some fairly nasty cuts before. It had taken him weeks to get up the nerve to do the rituals that enhanced his night vision, setting cuts to the inside of his eyelids. He'd had nightmares about it for days beforehand and afterward. This was different; this was slicing his arm open. Cuts that weren't much more than skin deep he could do with little concern or worry, they didn't bother him. This was making feel nauseous just thinking about it. He'd done his ankles; those had not been so difficult, even though he had had to cut deep to hit the vein that his instincts told him was the one he should use. Which veins exactly and where were a little different person to person.

Apart from the first bloodmagic ritual a person performed this was one of the most deadly pieces. It had to be done in a certain time span and if you moved too fast or too slow it fell apart. People often vomited or fainted, both of which meant death. Dropping the knife meant death. People usually wound up shaking form this ritual and removing the knife from your blood and flesh meant death. Cuts could not be made at an angle but had to be made perpendicular to the skin's surface, missing that meant death. The bloodmagic runes on the chamber floor were in a series of tight celtic-looking knots and circles, moving outside of them meant death, which left very little room. Rahkesh, like most bloodmagic users, diligently kept up his yoga and other flexibility exercises for rituals like this one where they had little room to move and had to remain balanced, least they fall over and die while adjusting their position to reach the veins on the back of the knees.

He would have taken a mild calming draught but this was to filter blood. His blood needed to be at its best when he did this piece. He'd been eating carefully to avoid any synthetic chemicals and not taking any sort of potion for two weeks in preparation. The healers had agreed that his blood was as good as it was going to get.

Rahkesh took a slow breath and cut as he breathed out, Namach had suggested that. It was surprisingly easy.

Rahkesh drew the knife back and slid it into the next set, tracing back up his arm and over his chest to the other side. He'd cut too deep on that one. He called on his healing bloodmagics and the wound, glowing with the magic coating him, healed quickly to the point where it was barely bleeding. He finished the left hand and went up to his shoulders. Those cuts were also easy; blood ran well from wounds to the shoulder/neck area. Then he continued to his throat.

The throat was another problem. Rahkesh had studied carefully the exact area he needed to cut and which vein he needed to hit. But that didn't make it any easier to actually do it. He was starting to feel sick again and Rahkesh realized he was shaking a little; he probably had been for some time. A mirror would have helped, but that wasn't possible, it would interfere with his connection to the bloodmagic he was weaving into himself. Finding the correct spot Rahkesh breathed out and pressed the knife it.

From then on it was easy, once his healing magics had closed the throat wound enough so that he was in no danger Rahkesh hurried through the rest of it. He went a little too fast, but he was starting to feel lightheaded from the stress and the reek of blood was beginning to awaken both the basilisk and the thunderbird. He didn't want either trying to force a transformation in the middle of a bloodmagic ritual. Rahkesh pushed them both aside, and got two waves of killing instinct, brought about the scent of so much blood, for trying. He firmly out his animagus and parsel forms aside and concentrated on not getting himself killed.

Finished the ritual Rahkesh undid the rings and patterns of bloodmagic on the floor with shaking hands. He swayed as he tried to stand, and it was only the knowledge that if he fell he would snap the remaining magic that kept him upright. Trembling and dizzy Rahkesh left the room and cleaned it quickly before sinking down onto the bench.

The door opened a few moments later and Namach walked in. Rahkesh just nodded his head to the ancient and began casting healing spells. He felt awful. His body ached and he couldn't seem to stop rubbing at his wrists and throat, just to assure themselves they were intact. All of the new runes healed he took the robe Namach handed him and managed to stand up, before nausea washed over him again, leaving him feeling weak.

"Try this." Namach said, handing him a small pill, "muggle anti-seas sickness medicine, works great for most bloodmagic rituals and doesn't interfere." Rahkesh accepted it and the cup of water.

"That only took three hours." He said finally as they walked out the door.

"It's not a time consuming one, just extraordinarily difficult, mentally. Every instinct starts screaming at you not to do it." Namach said. "Ordinarily I would suggest a dreamless sleep potion but you can't take anything even remotely magical until after you've used those runes once." Rahkesh nodded and checked the time on the clock above the door. Twenty-four hours from now he'd do the last part, drinking poison and then actually filtering it out. "Wash the blood off and get some sleep Rahkesh." Namach told him. Rahkesh nodded and changed direction. He felt awful and didn't feel like he could remain upright through a shower. Namach walked with him back to his rooms, Rahkesh probably would have been safe alone – attacking someone who had just completed a bloodmagic ritual was too dangerous, the magic tended to be uncontrolled, unsettled, and violent. No one wanted a massive combustion of out of control bloodmagic when they were in the vicinity of the person whose magic had just slipped. But there were always those willing to try anything and catching Rahkesh at a weak moment might have been a strong enough incentive for someone to risk the bloodmagic backlash. With Namach there no one was going to try anything.

"You have until two thirty tomorrow, try to get it exact Rahkesh. Missing the correct time makes it more difficult." Namach advised. Rahkesh nodded his thanks to the retreating vampire and moved quickly into his bathroom, where he had transfigured the tub into sizeable hot tub. There was no way he was going to be able to eat for a while and classes were out of the question. He spent the next four hours soaking until the residual ache from the healed veins faded away.

Filtering his blood and excreting the poisons through the portals he'd created proved to be very difficult. Once he found the substance in his blood Rahkesh had to get it to the nearest portal, but speeding up the flow of his blood was deadly so he had to work with its speed. He also couldn't make the substance change direction while his blood flowed one way. While figuring out where it was going and which portal to open he also had to magically force the poison into a "lump" rather than allowing it to spread out trough his blood.

The bloodmagic he had done the day before guided him through it, working with his healing bloodmagic to block the poison from doing any damage while pulling it into a tight bunch and directing it, eventually, out his left wrist in a stream of pure scorpion venom. Rahkesh collected it into a jar to add to the poisons he kept, and closed the portal. The bloodmagics faded away, leaving once again dizzy and exhausted.

"Was that fast enough?" He asked his one eyed albino professor.

Professor Vaeryes, who'd been observing the final part – all parts of this piece were observed because it was required – seemed very surprised that Rahkesh had managed it. He nodded and made a quick note on the form he had to fill out saying he'd seen Rahkesh use the bloodmagic system he had set up.

"Yes, very fast. The average is twenty minutes you did it in half that time." He finally admitted. Rahkesh grinned, Vaeryes had trouble saying _that_ to his youngest upstart student. The professor gave him a curious glance and shook his head. "Namach said you were a natural. Have you had any near death experiences?"

Rahkesh blinked. Oh no. It was starting already.

"Erm, well yes. Haedil, the Amadan in our class, used that curse on me, and it didn't work." Rahkesh said finally. Vaeryes knew about that – how could he not? But Rahkesh didn't think he was in on the dragon's blood so he wasn't going to elaborate.

"Your connection to death is very strong, for you to be able to avoid it so well." Vaeryes said, "it must have been established by that curse not working properly. You'll find that very useful."

"Yeah." Rahkesh muttered, wishing he'd leave. Fortunately he wasn't the only one attempting this particular piece of bloodmagic that weekend and Vaeryes had to go observe the others as well. As soon as Vaeryes had left Daray came in, having finished his own set a few hours earlier.

"Still alive." He observed.

"Yes. Silas?"

"He's not trying that yet. He's having some difficulty decided which knife to use." Daray explained. Silas often had to work a lot harder than they did at finding the correct knife to use for his bloodmagic. It wasn't as intuitive for him as it was for them.

"He should try the old bronze one with the glass handle, the one with the scorpion encased in glass for a grip and the glass wings out along the blade." Rahkesh decided. "I think it suits him for this piece."

"I was thinking more the wooden knife myself." Daray said, referring to the only wooden bloodmagic knife in the school's possession, a relic that must have come from the late Stone Age.

"Or both. It is a symmetrical piece, use one for one side one for the other, and maybe a third knife for the throat. The wyvern wing talon one maybe." Rahkesh thought. "What poisons did they make you use?"

"Taipan venom." Daray replied, "most deadly muggle snake. I think Vaeryes may have purposefully given me too much."

"Of course he did. Expect the unexpected – isn't that the motto on his office door?" Rahkesh said, he'd been given more than he had been led to expect as well. "Anyone going to fail you think?"

"Well no one is forcing us to do this. So anyone who doesn't feel ready doesn't do it yet. It isn't required for anything this year. It's just that only people who have it can start the necromancy classes." Daray reminded him. "The werewolf, the one who attacked you and you poisoned with wolfsbane, I don't think he'll make it."

"He's trying this? He's almost failing the class." Rahkesh asked incredulously.

"Wants to prove he can I guess." Daray said with a shrug.

"I suppose we'll all be getting another lecture Monday about not trying a ritual until we're certain we're ready for it." Rahkesh said with a tired sigh. "Ten minutes really is too long to take to remove a poison. Are you going to attempt the second part someday to make it work faster?"

"Yes. Namach won't allow it until after we've taken a healing class and one necromancy class. And gotten good enough grades and proved we understand how it works." Daray said grumpily.

"That's because the last person who tried it without doing that blew up one of the bloodmagic chambers." Rahkesh reminded him, that incident had occurred a decade earlier. Namach was very protective of his bloodmagic chambers; hence the bells to call for backup should someone seem to be failing. With the older students and professors creating wards the person would still die, but the chamber would remain intact.

XXXX

Rahkesh poured the growth potions, mixed with his blood, onto the ground around the roots of the small blood tree. He had moved it to one of the Potter family estates. This one was only a small cottage in Scotland, but it was all he needed. And it had greenhouses.

Fed on growth potions and magically powerful blood the Dyalnos tree had grown very rapidly. Concerned over it being stolen, or him being killed if professor Xanthius found out he own a Dyalnos tree, Rahkesh had moved it here for safe keeping. Its bark was becoming marbled black and white, like a black and white tye-dyed shirt without any grey. The leaves were a shiny healthy blood red. Soon it would be large enough to extract some wood from it to create a new wand. A wand that was uniquely his and very powerful.

_Allow no one onto the property, and if anyone should manage to get in protect the tree._ He hissed softly to the four serpents at his feet. He received an acknowledgement and watched as they slipped off amongst the plants. The tree boa up into one of the huge trees, of a species he didn't know, while the rattlesnake settled on the front porch. The other two went to find places around the greenhouse or surrounding gardens. He had rescued them from a hideous muggle pet shop and given them a home here, on the condition that they protect the property. Injected with his blood they could ignore any orders from Voldemort, even if he used the parselmagic against them.

Finished with the snakes Rahkesh left the greenhouse and checked on the thestrals. They were the guardians of the property and as such there were always several on guard duty. They nodded to him and went back to their watches around the small stone cottage and fields. It was spring and the new green grasses had drawn in the entire herd to feed, along with a handful of unicorns. As he watched the thestral and unicorns Rahkesh glimpsed what he thought was a winged cat flying into the thick forest. He wished he had the time to explore all of the family properties, but at the moment he had more important things to be doing.

Rahkesh went back inside, to the workroom in the basement, and opened a bag he had brought with him. He pulled out a basilisk fang, a thunderbird feather, one of Enireth's scales, a small phial of unicorn blood –willingly given of course – a few tail hairs from unicorns, thestrals, hippogriffs, fire horses, and pegasi. Veela hair, werewolf hair, a vampire fang, an Amadan fae's hair, a baku hair, fire salamander blood, Enireth's blood, basilisk blood and venom, the thunderbird's blood, yeck fur, sygra's blood and some blood from her wyvern form, demon blood and demon scales, a tiny bit of phoenix ashes from one of the wild phoenixes, and albino eagle feather, animus bacca leaves – leaves, pearls, roots, and sap, and some phoenix tears. It was a good start. Somewhere amongst this was what he would use to create his wand, eventually.

He knew from his two forms, the thunderbird and the basilisk, that it would have at least two cores, and possibly more. Dyalnos wood wands could mix magics better than anything else, so he would probably soak the cores and the wood in several potions, what exactly he didn't know.

With the possible wand parts on a shelf Rahkesh went to work on his other project. Voldemort's hideout was in a cave. There were very deadly creatures that liked caves. And he had no more difficulty killing death eaters than he had killing the Inca who had attacked the Chachapoyaro cities. Other than creatures some of what he had learned there could be useful. Surely the death eaters didn't apparate into the underground fortress, they probably apparated to a place outside and walked in a short distance. And caves had poor ventilation, poisonous gases could kill many people beforeanyone thought to use a wind charm.

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Longer than usual chapter. Hope you like it. Please review.

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Now that I've established where the world is you can expect some real battles soon. Though most of the really good stuff, and the answers to the questions every has been asking – where's draco? When's he going to fight voldemort? When do they find out who he is? Will have to wait until Akren's summer break to be fully answered.

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You can also expect confrontations with other parselmouths soon, and maybe a few Prophet interviews.

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	30. Chapter 30

Many many apologies for the late update. I actually finished this weeks ago but I'm having computer problems and couldn't update. I'm trying to fix the computer but if it starts croaking again it may be a while until the next update.

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Longest chapter yet! Ten and a half thousand words! This fic has finally passed the two hundred thousand words mark!

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Please read the notes at the end of the chapter! Then review.

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Chapter 30

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"Alohomora". The spell hit the circular gold and amethyst medallion set into the rock, was absorbed, and transferred through. On the other side of ten feet of solid rock the invisible spell flew through the rock and out into the room and hit a rickety chair. The back panel of the chair back and the underside of the seat snapped open. "Alohomora." Now the chair legs opened, spilling their contents onto the floor. These four liquids mixed with what had fallen from the other two compartments. The reaction was the creation of an invisible gas. A lethal invisible gas.

None of the death eaters sitting around the room heard or saw a thing. They didn't hear the chair being activated because of the well oiled hinges and springs, they didn't hear the chemical reactions taking place, because those were nearly soundless. And the vapors that filled the room were colorless and odorless. But very, very, deadly.

It worked quickly, with no coughing and only a little wheezing at first. Then the death eaters began to gasp as the poison coated the inside of their lungs and stopped oxygen from being absorbed. While they began to suffocate the fast acting poison was being drawn into their bloodstream. One of them made a dash for the door, but with the poison in his veins he moved too slowly and collapsed before he reached it, paralyzed. Once paralyzed there was nothing that could have been done, even if the best healers Saint Mungo's had to offer arrived immediately. In less than four minutes a dozen men and women in black robes and white masks lay dead on the floor.

Regulus removed the medallion, a Black family heirloom, and slipped away into the warm damp spring night, in the form of a dark colored fox. Unseen, unheard, unsmelled, and unsensed by the wards.

It had been Harry who had figured out how to get him through the wards. Regulus bore the dark mark, which was created with parselmagics. Voldemort could sense each person and knew who he was sensing; the mark broadcast the name to him. Harry, also a parselmouth, had reworked Regulus's mark to temporarily give off the name of a death eater Moody had nabbed a week earlier. Harry had simply caused regulus's mark to temporarily give off the magical signature of someone else by trapping a bit of the other man's magical signature into the mark with parselmagic. How this had been done Harry couldn't explain. He could understand how Voldemort had made the connections, that knowledge was in the parselmagics, but he couldn't explain it, it was something instinctive. With more experience he thought he would have understood but he wasn't about to bind people to him just to understand this. It seemed that Regulus's lack of contact with Voldemort had left his mark weak, his connection with the dark lord so light that Voldemort hadn't really noticed. And he never would have thought of Regulus even if he had noticed a stirring in his links with his servants, it was one of the advantages of being "dead".

"Well that went well." Regulus said softly, becoming human again at the house, they were using a small house Regulus owned, under a false identity, as a base for the night. The property was on the edge of the village, about four kilometers from the Riddle Mansion.

"It seems a little unfair, they had no chance, and there was no battle." Shacklebolt said.

"There are a lot more of them, and they wouldn't hesitate to use the same methods." Tonks told her superior.

"I have to agree with Tonks. And, Shacklebolt, there is less of a fuss this way. Quick, clean, no commotion, no noise." Harry said.

"Stage two?" Moody asked.

"Soon." Harry promised. "I let Siraka go ten minutes ago." Siraka was the diamondback rattlesnake he had originally gotten to guard the cottage he was using to house his Dyalnos tree, but she was getting bored and wanted to do something more. After explaining the situation, and who Voldemort was, she had been happy to help.

"Sygra?"

"With Siraka."

"Good. Vampires?" Shacklebolt asked Moody. Moody lifted one arm and flipped open the armguard he was wearing. Inside was a two way communication device the Weasely twins had originally built for the Order.

"How's it going?"

"Got all six." Came the short reply. "We're on our way." Moody closed the communication panel and turned back to them.

The vampires were gathering the death eaters who had gone on a kidnapping mission. They had followed them out of the secret exit in Voldemort's fortress, which a death eater had kindly told them about, under the influence of several potions and with Remus, in werewolf form, ready to rip him apart and eat him if he didn't.

The second reason for sending the vampires was that if the death eaters were captured they couldn't return while the plan was in progress to cause trouble. They knew where most of the death eaters were this night and had control over six. It gave some security.

"We need to turn in all the death eaters alive." Shacklebolt reminded Moody. "The vampires just saved three little kids, we can focus on that better if they don't go and eat the death eaters."

"They know that." Harry replied, since Moody was getting annoyed. On the desk a small array of gemstones beeped, and one started glowing. "Rita confirmed the attack is over and she's interviewing the witnesses." The reporter had practically started drooling when Harry told her the plans, and asked if she wanted to be their lead reporter for this. Of course, she didn't know everything. She wouldn't learn about the death eaters they had just murdered. _That_ didn't need to become public knowledge. They would be more likeable if they were seen as being above such things. At first anyway. Rahkesh hoped to change that. But it would be best to change public views in small steps.

Shacklebolt, ever loyal, had insisted on giving the Ministry one last chance, Tonks had agreed and so had Moody. Harry would have written it off as a complete waste of time, but it had the great advantage of giving them an "I told you so" after everything was over, whenever that was. People looking back on the war would know that the vampires had tried twice, once at Azkaban, and once tonight, and had been ignored and persecuted both times. And while Azkaban was a kidnapping and trespassing event, this was merely saving lives. The vampires Lord Hadrian had sent had saved the three kids from other vampires who had accompanied the six death eaters – those vampires were dead. Showing two distinct groups. And the Ministry had blamed one for the actions of the other. The vampire elders had also sent word saying that if they could have assurances of not being attacked by witches and wizards, they would kill off all the young vampires. The Ministry had not replied and the day before several vampires, testing to see if the Ministry was even thinking about the letter, had been attacked on the Minister's orders. They had two eyewitness accounts of the letter being delivered by the bat messenger, and the same two could say that the Minster had read it. The Ministry could not claim ignorance. That those two people were veteran aurors, _humans_, made them very acceptable.

"Do you think the vampires would stop, even if the Ministry backs down after this?" Shacklebolt asked. Rahkesh and Moody had been waiting for him to ask all night.

"No." They both said at the same time.

"If vampires are declared equals to witches and wizards, maybe. But it's unlikely." Moody said. Neither of them mentioned the vampire's plan to let the muggles know they existed sometime soon. They didn't need that complication, especially since there wasn't anything that could deter the vampires; they had spent too long planning for this.

"I don't like relying on one serpent." Tonks said.

"We've gone over this several times. Sygra knows what to do and she'd a quick thinker." Harry said.

It was mid spring and after three weeks of work their plan to steal Hufflepuff's cup from Voldemort's fortress was finally active.

The dead death eaters were the only ones currently in the area of the back entrance to Voldemort's personal rooms. The plan was for Siraka to meet up with Nagini, or any other serpent belonging to Voldemort. She would need to distract him. Siraka was uniquely suited to this as she had been stepped on by one of the thestrals several days before. The wound kept her from moving easily but was not life threatening. With Voldemort hopefully gone and distracted Sygra would go in and remove anyone that stood in her way. The cup was in a safe under Voldemort's bed. They knew that from one of his snakes Harry had captured and convinced to tell him about his former master.

Getting a copy of the key to the safe had been a surprisingly easy, though very complex, procedure. Voldemort had raided a muggle town to kill four muggleborns living there, sport for his death eaters and vampires. Needing to make a public appearance Voldemort had gone himself. Harry and Remus had planted explosives under the street minutes before the death eaters arrived (informed in advance by Regulus, who had spied on their meeting in the Riddle family cemetery) and Andrew Farov, hidden amongst the vampires, had telekinetically detached the key ring from its necklace and summoned the key to him while Voldemort ducked for cover. Farov had made a mold and the key had been back in its place by the time Voldemort got back on his feet and finished dusting himself off. And the aurors, also warned via tip from Shacklebolt's unnamed source (Regulus this time), had saved three of the muggleborns. They had created an identical key from the mold, which had been attached to Sygra with a bit of tape.

The major problem had been getting through Voldemort's wards, his rooms were heavily protected. But the death eaters they had questioned claimed that he lifted the wards every time he left. If Siraka did a good job the wards would be open long enough for Sygra to get through.

They had expected to find heavy magic guarding the safe, but Regulus claimed that the locket had not had any special magics on it itself. According to Dumbledore's portrait at Hogwarts, accessed by Moody while on a visit to check the school's wards, the ring hadn't had any magics on it either. While that had been encouraging they had been worried about the safe. However Dumbledore had told Moody that the cup most likely had healing magics, and most dark wards/enchantments and healing magics could not exist in close proximity. It was very likely that the safe itself was free of magical barriers because of the natural powers of Helga's cup. It was a dangerous assumption, but since it had a very good chance of being true it wasn't enough to hold them back.

It had been a hard sell, getting them to allow Sygra to do this. They had only his word to go on, and he hadn't told them about plan B – Sygra transforming and flying out. They did know that she could go through walls, and that she could take objects with her. The golden cup of Hufflepuff was supposedly fairly small, no bigger than a small wine glass, with two handles. Sygra, at a little over four feet in length, should not have a problem moving it. The only thing they did not know was what exactly the cup's magical powers, unrelated to Voldemort, were. But they all doubted those would cause complications.

"And now we wait." Moody growled. He limped to a chair and sat down, resting his good leg on the coffee table with a thunk and his false one stretched out on the floor. Harry knew he had to be worried and as anxious as the rest of them, but the ex auror showed none of it. He just took a drink from his flask and closed his eye.

The other shifted nervously with a few drawn out sighs. It was going to be a long night, waiting for the snakes to do their job.

"What do we do if the muggles notice anything?" Remus asked suddenly.

"Got that covered a week ago, you were out dealing with your lycanthropy." Shacklebolt replied, "We've got two people working for the Prime Minister right now. I was the original contact so I got to choose people I trusted to take over when I got pulled out of there. There are some other important events to distract all the reporters – a couple of elephants got out of a zoo and someone painted several government building bright colors and someone snuck into a military base and repainted their helicopters and other harmless things. The local police have "heard" through the grape vine that the SAS is doing some secret training thing in the area."

"I still can't believe he split his soul into pieces." Tonks muttered with shiver. "I can't even imagine wanting to do that."

"Especially since he chose the worst possible way of doing it." Harry agreed, the others all turned to stare at him. "I looked into how you can split up your soul, there are two other ways that don't involve murder. Mind you murder is the least painful of them."

"Of course, because that way you either have to experience horrific pain or kill someone, which is a pretty good deterrent for most people." Shacklebolt said.

"Molly and Arthur would like to see you some time." Tonks said to Harry.

"I know. I don't think I'll have time this weekend, maybe next week." He said, they probably wanted to discuss leaving the country. Charlie and Bill were both gone, they had work that traveled.

The twins he hadn't seen in a while, but they had decided to leave. He didn't know where they were going, but he had stopped by their shop a few weeks earlier to discuss what they were going to do. They were going to open a joke shop, once they decided where to go, and at Harry's suggestion they would keep on creating other devices, patenting them, and selling them on the side. Their work on stuff for the Order had been incredible – their creative genius was simply astounding, and Harry hadn't wanted to see it all go to waste. There were a lot of people who would be very interested in the twin's stuff, including law enforcement agencies from every country in the world, and every criminal in existence. He had pointed out that they didn't have to sell to anyone they disapproved of, and would be a great help to any cause they wanted to support. A pair of inventors like Fred and George could go anywhere and be welcomed.

He would have mention his school and suggested that they try to get in, but they were eighteen and he wasn't sure if they would have time to meet the graduation requirements. If they didn't they were killed. There weren't a whole lot of requirements, but Akren refused to graduate any student who mgiht not be successful. The few requirements took work and ingenuity. The twins had both, but didn't think they really had time for some of it. he had offered to teach them the Akren method of animagi transformations, and they had both eagerly accepted.

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Sygra watched as Siraka slipped into one of the entrances Voldemort had built for his snakes – and immediately tried to back out again when she came face to face with Nagini. What luck. Because of her injuries Siraka couldn't back up and Nagini didn't recognize her as one of Voldemort's serpents. The two spoke briefly and then Nagini retreated. Siraka's story fo escaping from a horrible traumatizing muggle pet shop and getting stepped on by a horse pulled carriage must have passed.

_Come with me. My master can help you._ Nagini called behind her to the injured diamond back. Siraka flicked the end of her tail, still out of the tunnel, at Sygra, and followed slowly.

_Your master?_ Siraka inquired in confusion as she hesitated, and slowly moved after the larger snake.

_A human who can speak to us. _Nagini said, _come in, I won't eat you._

_I'm venomous. You're not._ Siraka reminded her. Nagini hissed in amusement.

_And I could crush you in seconds, wrap my coils around you and squeeze your fangs shut and crush your body._ She reminded Siraka coldly. Siraka swayed her head from side to side and followed.

Once she could no longer hear or see them Sygra slipped past the tunnels and up onto the hill. She had been doused in potions to not give off any scent, and Regulus (in fox form) had left a scent marker at the point above Voldemort's rooms. She wasn't keen on falling through the ceiling, but memories Moody had stolen from a death eater had given a good location for landing on Voldemort's bed, and the ceiling was lowest in the bedroom.

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"Report from the vampires, the family and all the witches and wizards living on that block, apparently there are several families, all know the kids were saved by vampires. Rita is observing while the vampires and mortals discuss the anti-vampire laws and general ignorance humans have of vampires." Remus said, reading from a piece of parchment. It was a connection to one of the vampires who was to keep them informed.

"Tonks perhaps you should be there. In disguise, check out the surrounding buildings and such. One of the death eaters might have a signal to show they were captured. It only takes one." Moody said suddenly. Tonks nodded and slowly changed into a middle aged browned haired plain looking woman. The sort of person no one would remember or recognize. "And if things to get out of hand with the muggles you can obliviate a few."

"Good idea." Harry said, filing it away for later use.

"Been doing this a long time lad." Moody said with a grin. "Marluck's advanced classes are very good." The others, having long since realized that they probably wouldn't understand half of what Harry and Moody said, ignored the name and mention of school. "The more layers of backup there are the better chance you have of succeeding and living."

Tonks left to go find the vampires and the others continued to wait. They didn't know how long this would take; it would depend upon how long it took Siraka to find Nagini.

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Sygra found her spot and waited, smelling the air. Rahkesh had been teaching her to recognize warding magic by its scent, and she could smell powerful wards on the ground below her. The whole area was warded, but the area above Voldemort's rooms was where the wards felt the strongest.

Suddenly the wards below her vanished. Without pausing to think Sygra dove into the earth, wrapping magic around her and traveling through it. She could travel through almost anything, so long as it contained nonliving matter, she couldn't travel through trees, but solid titanium wasn't a problem.

Voldemort's fortress was very deep underground and Sygra moved as fast as possible to get through before the wards reappeared. The earth was wet and large rocks showed up, she went through them easily, but had to swerve her downward motion to avoid large tree roots. Finally she hit air and fell through the ceiling, landing on a soft surface with a quiet thud.

Sygra slid under the pillow as fast as possible, just incase anyone had heard her land and come to investigate. From there she peeked out and looked around. At that moment the wards appeared again.

Voldemort had a thing for decadence; his rooms were beautifully furnished with extremely expensive furniture, paintings, and rugs, and lit by torches and candles. The room was cozy, but in a cold sort of way, everything was in cool colors, with only the candles to give it any warmth. The walls were a dark cream and the bed was covered with dark green velvet blankets over black silk sheets. There was a small mirror over a dresser but Sygra sensed it was not magical and therefore wouldn't shout a warning if it saw her. That had been one of her master's major concerns. Magical mirrors could talk.

Interestingly the paintings were not magical either, though she supposed that the ones in the office and sitting room probably were, but here they were not. Ordinary muggle works with no magic. Another potential problem she didn't have to worry about. If snakes had had a god Sygra would have thanked him, instead she slid to edge of the bed and leaned over to look down.

Immediately she knew she would not be able to go under the bed, there were wards wrapped around the bed, running from the floor to the bottom of the mattress. The wards were a wall though, they did not fill the entire space under the bed, just around the edges, probably because they could not exist too close to the cup. Sygra smelled the air and detected both unicorn and human blood drawn in a line around the base of the bed, and second line around the edges of the mattress. The floor and mattress and been forced to magically absorb enough blood that it would have taken a child's life to create the wards. The scent of death was also present.

Sygra went to the center of the bed and examined the sheets, there were no wards here. She pressed her whole body against the blankets and drew her magic around her again, and sunk through. Through the blankets, through the sheets, and through the mattress. Spells on the silk sheets made her skin hurt, but it passed quickly and the mattress was not enchanted. She hit the floor and found her self atop the safe. There was no alarm given when she hit it, but it did have magics on it, old magics. That, while not alerting Voldemort that someone had touched the safe, would not let her through.

Sygra twisted around and slid the key out from under the tape. This was the hard part, snakes have no limb and her mouth was more adept at unhinging to swallow prey that at maneuvering things. With the help of her coils she managed to insert the key and twist it. Then she slid off the safe, slipped her tail through the tiny handle, and lifted the door.

Inside the safe was surprisingly large. And now Sygra recognized its magic, it was enchanted to be bigger inside than outside, like her masters trunks, desk, and suitcases, though those enchantments were unnecessary; the safe was not even half full.

Inside lay a bundle wrapped in silver silk, and several other items. Sure that the wrapped object was the cup Sygra flicked the covering away with her snout, and hissed in pleasure at the small two handles cup that was revealed, bearing a badger crest. She slid her head through one of the handles and lifted herself out of the safe, allowing it to slid down her body until she could wrap another layer of coils around the handle. It tingled with magic, dark magic, insane twisted magic that felt _wrong_. Sure that she could carry the cup Sygra looked back into the safe.

There were several books, much too big for her to carry, and their magic smelled nasty. There was a white armband of three entwined snakes, it's was parselmagic and it spoke to Sygra, she ignored it as well. It was clunky and heavy. Next was a silver and green ring, nonmagical but delicate and very beautiful. Sygra left it as well. Nosing further in she discovered one other item, a small ball not much bigger than her head, which hung from a very short chain of blue metal. Probably made to be worn around a wrist or arm or ankle she decided, and the ball, made from chips of diamond and gold, had a seam and hinge. Sygra smelled it and tasted a hint of snake scent, though of what sort she couldn't tell.

Unsure if it could be useful she withdrew from the safe and thought of her master, his scent, the sound of his voice, the feel of his magic.

- Master?- In the house Harry closed his eyes, becoming Rahkesh, mentally, and sending out a thought, searching for his familiar. This was something they had practiced occasionally, but never over such a long distance. He could feel a faint hint of snake magic at the edge f his senses, and unique feel of Sygra.

- Yes? – He asked. Rather than spoken reply he saw an image flash across his closed eyelids, and a thought of uncertain intent. He and Sygra had discovered that words were difficult for them to transmit, intentions were easier. He sent back a certainty that she should try to take it. Along with a wave of caution. Thinking strongly that Sygra should ditch the diamond and gold ball if she had too. He got a feeling of reassurance. Sygra was no fool; she knew which was more important.

Sygra slipped her head through the short chain and lifted the seamed ball out, sliding it down her body and wrapping and looping through the chain again. Then she closed the safe, turned the key and tucked the key back under the tape on her back. With luck Voldemort didn't check very often and would never know.

Now she had to get out. Sygra glanced upwards, wondering if she could get back up through the bed. Decided she probably could she lifted as much of her body off the floor as she could, wrapped her magic around, letting in encase the key, the cup, and the strange seamed diamond ball, and lunged upwards.

She barely made it, she was just over four feet long and she couldn't lift all her body off the ground, she managed to get her head up onto the mattress and bit in for extra support. Her packages slowed her down some, but eventually she managed to lift her whole length back up onto the bed. There was an option now. Out through the wall and see if she could get out, before Voldemort's wards noticed. Or through the ceiling.

She could go through objects in her wyvern form, but not always, there were many things that could stop her when she had her wings. It was much easier as a snake. And magical object usually stopped her. So really it was a question of which was quicker, bashing her way through the ceiling, or through several walls corridors and however many people were out there. For this decision her master had given her a little help. The key was enchanted and covered with a potion. It had fulfilled its first use, and they still had the mold. Now she could toss it up again the ceiling and it would explode upon a strong impact. Her master had mixed several layers of potions onto the key, including an anti-gravity potion, which, while still experimental, did give objects, or in this case an explosive force, a tendency to work against gravity. Ensuring that most of the explosion would be channeled upwards. In the end Sygra chose the ceiling.

She pulled the key from under the tape, and looked up; Rahkesh had insisted that she practice this too.

She lifted herself off the bed and then bent, they had discovered that using her entire body to throw increased how fats and how hard she could throw objects. Coiling as if she were going to strike Sygra lunged upwards, ending with a flick of her head, releasing the key.

It hit the ceiling hard and the enchantments and potions activated.

The resulting blast shook the ground and massive chunks of the ceiling began to fall out. Realizing that in her current form she could be crushed Sygra transformed.

The wyvern lunged off the bed, unfurling her wings in mid air and pounding the air to gain speed. As the ceiling dropped away she twisted her head and neck in between the boulders dropping down at her, rubbing them aside rather than knocking into them. Her wings were hit several times by the jagged chunks and began to bleed. Sygra ignored this, concentrating instead on keeping the two objects trapped in the last coil of her tail.

Finally the falling debris turned to dir and Sygra lunged upwards again, flying through it with great difficulty, holding her breath so as not to inhale it.

Up above the stars began visible and out of the widening hole in the ground the wyvern burst into the night air.

Behind her the enchantments on the hill the fortress was inside were already at work, and her tail barely cleared the hole before everything that had fallen in slammed upwards and closed up again, healing like an injury under an especially powerful healing spell. Knitting bedrock back together and layering the soil atop it. In seconds there was no sign anything had ever happened.

Sygra winged away towards the forest, and then dropped to the ground in a small clearing and transformed. Scenting out her trial from earlier she followed it back to the hidden portkeys. One for each snake. Siraka had not yet returned. But she had other orders. If Siraka had a chance of gaining Nagini's trust and joining in a spy amongst Voldemort's serpents, she would do so. Siraka had been eager to fight against this human that had disgraced her species so. She was probably still with Voldemort.

Curling herself around the portkey Sygra spat her most acidic venom onto it, dissolving away the paper it was wrapped in, the portkey triggered as soon as it touched her and with a horrid yank (she _hated_ portkeys), she found herself on the porch of the fox-man's house.

XXXX

"Incoming." Moody barked as the blue crystals that the anti-portkey wards were attached to flared with magical sparks. Sygra's portkey was attached to the wards so she could go in and out.

Harry dashed out onto the porch in time to see Sygra land on the porch and toss the portkey aside with an angry flick of her tail. She didn't like flying or portkeying, but given a choice she preferred portkeys.

_Are you hurt_? He asked.

_Yes, the explosion made all of the ceiling fall on me._ Sygra complained, she uncurled and let the cup and diamond ball slide off her. Harry could see deep gashes along her sides, and her wyvern form probably had damage to its wings. He picked up the snake, the portkey, and levitated the diamond and gold ball, rather than touch it.

"Success!" He called back into the house. And quickly cast a silencing spell against the immediate whoops and cheers. Only Moody had the sense to check for a silencing spell before he too started laughing and cheering.

_Does this mean I can have some fresh lizard eggs tomorrow?_ Sygra asked as Harry began casting healing spells. Her scales quickly mended and Harry pulled a creamy healing potion out of his pocket and rubbed it into the new scales to minimize the scarring and remove the ache left by new scar tissue.

_Absolutely. What sort?_

_Iguana eggs._ Sygra answered at once, she had developed a fondness for them during their stay in Brazil. Harry had brought some back and was keeping them in one of the many chambers in Potter family vault that kept its contents out of time and perfectly preserved.

"One horcrux, now I just have to figure out how to destroy it." Harry said, sitting down beside Moody with Sygra wrapped around his neck and shoulders.

"We have one. That second snake of yours is with Nagini, which means we can get her too when we're ready." Moody reminded him.

"I just wish we hadn't lost the locket." Regulus said now that the celebrating had calmed down a bit.

"We'll find it. We have Mundungus's list of customers, it's just a matter of tracking down all of them." Remus said.

"I doubt he even knew the real names of most of those people, and I'm sure he didn't put all of them on that list." Harry said. "I think finding the locket is going to have to be done with some sort of soul magic scrying." He had some ideas about ways to find that one piece of soul magic amongst all other soul magic in the world, but he wasn't going to share that just yet. Involved some necromancy and he ah dot learn that first. Moody, apparently content to wait until Harry was ready to tell him what the plan was, just nodded and didn't ask anything.

Then the crystals that the vampires were using to communicate began to flash bright red and send out sparks.

XXXX

By the time they arrived it was complete chaos. There were bodies scattered across the street and the dark mark loomed high in the sky glowing sickly green. There were people screaming and flashes of magic flying.

Harry had already shifted back into Rahkesh and then given himself temporary dirty blond hair and much paler skin, it wasn't a disguise that would hold up for long against someone who knew what spells were usually used for such things, but during a fight it would be enough.

Death eaters, in their robes and white masks, were running everywhere in groups of three or four, attacking anyone running away. There was no sign of the vampires but Rahkesh assumed they had to be somewhere nearby.

"We need to set up some central point!" Moody called out over the noise. "We'll take the house on the corner." Remus turned and went over to the place moody had pointed at and began sending up flares and setting wards. Tonks ran up to them, breathless.

"They showed up just a few minutes ago, there must be over a hundred of them, the vampires disappeared."

"I've called in the aurors and the remaining Order.' Shacklebolt said. "We'll set that place up as a base; Tonks go help Remus, Moody, Harry?" The two exchanged looks.

"Change of plans Kingsley, I can't run well enough to keep up with them, Tonks you go join one of the auror units, I'll hold down the fort." Moody growled, his one eye spinning and his twisted grin looking much more ghoulish than usual. Rahkesh laughed.

"You're already enjoying this."

"Gotta love a good brawl." Moody agreed. "Now go find those vamps and send the people this way." Rahkesh saluted and picked out a spot in the park where most of the screaming was coming from. Moody clumped over to where Remus was waiting, and they both began summoning every body in sight, checking for anyone who might be alive.

"Crucio!"

"Flipendo." Rahkesh snapped, flinging the death eater head over heels then snapping the torture spell out of existence. The little boy lying on the ground rolled over, shaking like a leaf in gale. "SILENCIO!" this time the spell was cast from his wind, while his mind focused on all eight death eaters. He was counting on most of them needing incantations to cast spells.

Ordinarily he would have just summoned their wands, but Shacklebolt had said that the aurors were finding death eaters wearing anti-summoning charm pendants lately. Which was troublesome but not particularly disturbing.

A fire spell sent one death eater up in flames as he broke through the silencing charm. Harry Potter would have spared a thought for his pain, Rahkesh did not, and closed off all other thoughts but battle, like this he could kill as many as necessary, regret and a conscience could wait.

He ducked two cruciatus curses and took both the casters wand hands off with cutting curses. He followed it up with a blinding spell and a disarming spell. Catching both wands he flung the screaming death eaters and their wands into the street, at the feet of the newly arrived auror patrol.

Something blue flickered at the edge of his vision and he set a shield around himself. The impact made him stagger, whoever had cast it was strong, and they had just undone the silencing spells.

Rahkesh threw a series of cutting breaking burning and bleeding spells at the death eaters then dodged away, summoning the boy to him and then banishing him to the house on the corner where Remus was gathering the fleeing victims of the attack.

"Lumos!" Rahkesh called, hurling balls of light at the four death eaters who remained standing. He followed it with stunning and brain stopping spells to the death eaters on the ground.

Their eyes adjusted to the darkness the light blinded them, but Rahkesh's bloodmagic prevented that from being a problem.

"Avada kedavra!" One of the death eaters shouted, though the spell missed him by several feet Rahkesh still drew a knife and put it into the caster's guts. He then used a wand snapping hex to break his wand and stunned him.

"Confundus." Another death eater toppled over, then sat and looked around in confusion. Rahkesh stunned him and used a coma inducing curse to make sure he wouldn't be getting up. The other's eyes had adjusted, so Rahkesh cancelled his lumos spells, sending them all back into darkness.

"Reducto!"

"Petrificus totalus! Crucio!" Rahkesh conjured a rock to absorb the spells, rather than dodge. Apparently they had gotten over not being able to see well and were attacking anyway.

"Extorquo!" Rahkesh called up a shield this time. And pulled two tiny nets out of a pocket, he enlarged them into massive nets and let them fall on the death eaters.

"Immobulus! Expelliarmus." He sent the death eaters to the aurors in the street and hurried over to another body lying on the ground. This one was an older woman, who was quite dead.

"RRRAARRRGHH!" Rahkesh fell flat, letting the attacker sail over his head. He leaped up to see Fenrir Greyback land, spin, and launch himself forward, knives in both hands. Bad form, you never announced your attack, Rahkesh thought, pleased at that piece of incompetence.

Rahkesh touched his second tiny black earring, and enlarged the staff that fell out of it.

By the time he saw the weapon Fenrir was moving too fast to stop. Rahkesh put the end of the staff into his gut, then whipped it back and slammed it into his throat. The werewolf gasped, choked, and retched, dropping both knives. He grabbed the staff and managed to hit it so hard Rahkesh's arms hurt from the vibrations. He jerked the staff away and wandlessly transfigure done end to a point, and put it through the werewolf's foot. Fenrir howled as the staff went through and bounced off a rock below and was pulled out. But it didn't stop him; he lunged into a tackle, mouth open ready to bite and his hands clawing for Rahkesh's eyes.

Rahkesh touched the earring again, and summoned out a knife coated with silver. He waited until Fenrir was almost on top of him, then collapsed, ramming the knife up under the werewolf's lowest rib, and sinking it in deep, and an upwards angle.

Most of his forearm followed the knife into the open wound, and Rahkesh knew the knife had gone through Fenrir's heart. With a creature as strong as a werewolf, it was easier to knife the heart this way.

The werewolf's fingers clawed at his back, but a wandless shield burned his mouth when he tried to bite. Rahkesh threw him off and jumped back, leaving the knife.

"Crucio!" Rahkesh stumbled and fell, horrible pain shooting through his entire body, he remembered to roll and managed to make it back to his feet. He grabbed the spell wandlessly, and threw it away. Breathing shakily he turned around and began firing spells, whips of fire lashed out across the ground between him and the death eater. His opponent conjured and shield and then removed them. Rahkesh threw a dark curse that would stop the flow of their blood, and the death eater countered it.

"Well well, dark magic? From someone fighting for the Ministry? And who might you be?"

There were four of them. While he had been distracted by the cruciatus curse they had managed to surround him. Rahkesh glanced around, pretending nervousness to make them pause. But he wasn't looking at them. He was studying everyone else. There were unconscious or dead people around, but no one living and moving close by. The aurors had most of the death eaters locked in a fight on the streets, here in the park, partially shielded by trees it was very dark and quiet.

Perhaps it was safe enough; if anyone had been near he would have had to stick to other fighting methods. But with no one around but enemies…no one would notice his style of dueling.

"I don't fight for the Ministry." Rahkesh said, and cats a silent, invisible, confundus charm. "Where did the vampires go?" He cast a second confundus charm, and third. Because they were invisible and silent death eaters didn't notice. Rahkesh held the charms carefully once they hit, refusing to allow them to act just yet. A fourth charm, all he had to do now was let it go. But he wanted answers.

"They ran away when they saw us. Scared we'd put stakes through their dead hearts." One of the death eaters said.

Ran away? That was about as unlikely as the sun rising in the west. The Master of London's fighters did not just _run away_.

"You poor deluded fool." Rahkesh sighed. "Confundus."

The spells activated and the death eaters reeled. "Avis!" Rahkesh called firmly, concentrating, a massive flock of crows burst form his wand and attacked. Wit the death eaters distracted Rahkesh dodged aside until he had them all standing in a group several feet away. Then he summoned.

He summoned their hearts. The result was four instantaneous heart attacks.

Every person had their own unique dueling style; Marluck had told them that they could recognize enemies, even disguised, by how they dueled. Rahkesh had been very wary of how he fought ever since. Controlling several confundus charms like that was difficult and unusual, as was his using the summoning spell as an offensive final piece to a duel.

Not satisfied that the death eaters were probably dead Rahkesh took the time to stun each, bind them, and take their wands, just incase. Then he levitated them and ran down to the pile of death eaters Tonks was standing guard over. He tossed his into the pile and gave the wands to Tonks.

"The vampires?" She asked, her hair was purple now.

"On it." Rahkesh said, and moved back into the trees. He summoned the people lying on the ground and set them down near the house. Then he picked a spot where the trees shielded him with their lowest branches, and closed his eyes, searching for a vampiric presence.

There were vampires hidden in the trees at the edge of the park, and around the thick hedges and trees in some of the yards. They were watching the aurors fight the death eaters. And there were vampires helping the death eaters.

The ones helping the death eaters were different. Rahkesh could not say how he knew, he just did. It was like telling the difference between two types of very similar cheeses, just a slight difference, but noticeable. Had he been any less telepathically aware of vampires he would not have sensed it. As it was nearly two years of exposure to them and working hard at telepathy to sense them had left him well attuned to sensing such differences. Akren's Darwinian system would have killed him long since if he couldn't sense his fellow students.

Rahkesh drifted over to the vampires, they watched him approach cautiously. Rahkesh reached out mentally, and looked for an Akren signal. He found four of them and changed direction, heading for Andrew Farov, sending out his own telepathic greeting and signal to let the vampire know he was there.

"Good evening." Farov said pleasantly.

"Not for the dead ones it isn't. When Moody told me he wanted me around incase something happened he didn't mention a vampire/death eater/ministry/civilian standoff." Rahkesh replied. Let Farov think Moody had called him in since he was local and going to Akren, as backup just in case, he wasn't going to mention his real identity with nonAkren vampires around. No matter whom they belonged to. He hadn't met Lord Hadrian and therefore wasn't about to trust his control over his vampires.

"They're mostly not dead. We put mild coma spells on them to make them appear dead so the death eaters would let them be." Farov said.

"What happened?"

"There were only four vampires here, the death eaters showed up with fifty of them and nearly a hundred young vampires. Mostly muggle adults turned vampire. We had advance warning form a spy." Farov explained, Rahkesh had been counting and came up with a force of twenty heavily armed and magically powerful vampires surrounding them.

"When do you attack?"

"When the aurors start losing." Farov said. Rahkesh nodded, vampires rescuing aurors from death eaters and other vampires. He wondered when Rita was.

"The reporter is in position." One of the younger vampire sin Farov's attack group reported.

"She's on a rooftop to take pictures." Farov explained quickly. "And the aurors are getting into trouble. I think it's time." He turned to his vampires. "Use dark magic only to disable, try to avoid killing with it, we won't give them anything more to complain about."

Rahkesh, holding his staff in one hand his wand on the other picked out a position near the advancing death eaters and vampires, where trees would block him from most picture Rita might take, and the view of the aurors. He ducked behind a tree and removed his secret trunk from his earring and pulled out a belt, then he returned the trunk to the earring. The belt carried concealment spells and minor illusions to blur him and a series of enchantments to wrap shadows around him, regardless of where the light was. It would keep him form being identified and make his movements harder to follow. It would also conceal his magical signature. Anyone who tried to capture it or read it would sense a complete blank. He wasn't paranoid, really. But he hadn't told his friends about any of this either.

The aurors were falling back, dragging or levitating their wounded companions. Thinking they had won the death eaters and vampires were losing formation and becoming reckless. Rahkesh settled into position, waiting for the aurors to pass his spot. He would wait until the first death eaters had passed him, for now he settled for invisible tripping spells.

The first death eaters passed him, Rahkesh picked out an opening and leaped into it, staff spinning. Surprise helped, he knocked three of them out cold before anyone reacted. Then he was forced to create multiple shields to repel the barrage of spells.

"Incendio." He said sharply, pushing the magic from its normal form into the death eaters, the fire starting inside them and burning outwards. They collapsed, screaming. He would have normally simple used the combustion spell, but that was dark magic and everything would be easier if the Ministry didn't have to ability to claim that the vampires now rushing in to save the aurors had used dark magic to kill. Farov's idea was a good one, so long as it didn't endanger lives.

"Petrificus totalus, stupefy, immobulus, expelliarmus." Rahkesh called out, the death eater mostly managed to avoid the spells, which was the point. While they were busy deflecting Rahkesh was conjuring spiked rocks. As soon as the death eaters finished dealing with his spells his banished the rocks at high speed in every direction. The resulting cries told him some people had been hit. "Fracutum." Rahkesh cast the bone breaking spell at a death eater's skull, and was pleased to see him collapse.

Spotting a cluster of death eaters close together Rahkesh launched himself at them, putting the wand away and bringing the staff up. The magics placed on it by the Chachapoyaro sorcerers deflected the spells shot at him. He transfigured the staff to a point a slid it through a death eater's neck. Twisting around he pulled it backwards and hit the other under the chin. Turning Rahkesh slapped their wands out of their hands with a few quick movements of the staff to their arms and wrists. Stepping back from them he held the staff aside and raised one hand, remembering the focus and purpose necessary to call up wandless magic.

He shoved his palm forwards into the air, shoving the pressure onto their hearts. The group collapsed, twitching under massive heart attacks. Rahkesh dropped his hand. An Akren student would never have fallen for it, neither would most of the better aurors. Voldemort's best death eaters would have gotten away and countered, but these were amateurs. These were new death eaters, with little skill or practical experience. _No fun_ a stray thought said. Rahkesh clamped down on that thought. Killing was NOT fun. Fighting was, he would acknowledge that he truly enjoyed a good fight, but killing was not fun, in any form.

Beside him Andrew Farov lunged forward, sending another death eater flipping head over heel with a languid wave of one hand. The vampires then grabbed another death eater by the hair, ripped his wand away with his other hand, and sunk his fangs into his neck. A second later he drew his head back, leaving the man's throat a gaping wound. No ordinary vampire bite, he had ripped his throat open across his neck.

A deep dark laugh echoed from Farov's bloody fangs and he lunged again, throwing destructive spells with great accuracy, while using vampire telepathy to slow his opponents and telekinesis to send them toppling or clutching their heads form migraines. The combination was very advanced, something his young vampire friends would not master for years yet. And the resulting were staggering.

All around him vampires were killing death eaters, or at least incapacitating them, Rahkesh heard screams of terror. These death eaters were too young, if they had had a little more experience and known anything about vampire they might have managed a decent fight. Vampires were certainly not all powerful, but these had very little training. Now people were running, and Rahkesh had to close his mind off from the waves of pure terror he felt from the running people. The muggles turned vampire were fleeing.

Farov leaped past Rahkesh and wrapped his arm around one of the fleeing vampires, this one a young man. He tilted his head back and bit his neck. Overpowering the other vampire quickly. The muggle vampire collapsed against Farov. Farov picked him up and hurled him bodily across the street to a group of vampires who were putting collars on the necks of Voldemort's vampires, clipping portkeys onto the collars, and sending them away, probably to Lord Hadrian's mansion.

The vampires were very well trained, they moved smoothly and continuously, and no one escaped. Rahkesh found a group of death eaters trying to run out from under the anti apparition and anit portkey charms and followed.

He caught up with them in the center of the park. One of them turned and hurled a killing curse at him, Rahkesh ducked. And was forced to put up a shield as another threw a quick series of torture curses and maiming curses at him. They were powerful spells, and the caster was very skilled, his shield snapped on the fifth and Rahkesh rolled forward, under the next set.

He pulled out his wand and threw a strong summoning charm, the charm was deflected, but not before it ripped off her mask. Rahkesh paused as he came face to face with Bellatrix Lestrange. Bellatrix Lestrange, who had killed Sirius.

The ripping spell he cast was deflected, and returned. Only Bellatrix's spell struck. It hit the staff given to him by Xeri and Nic, and ripped a great crack through the wood.

Rahkesh saw red, that weapon had been made specifically for him by his two friends. Friends he would never see again. The thunderbird reacted to his anger, as did the serpent, and the two creatures joined their fury and their power and crashed into Rahkesh's mind, tumbling about in a swirl of endless violence.

Overhead thunder boomed and lightning flashed across the sky so brightly that everyone on the ground winced and froze. The sky was starless, massive clouds appearing from nowhere illuminated by seemingly endless lightning that flickered across the underside of the black clouds in waves.

Without thinking Rahkesh dropped his wand, raised the broken staff, and called, the wild scream of the thunderbird echoing through the air, sound produced by the magic rolling through the air.

Lightning plummeted out of the belly of the cloud overhead and hit the staff, rocketing down it and covering his body in a great snapping crackling cloak. Staff in one hand Rahkesh raised his other arm and held his hand out towards Bellatrix Lestrange.

Five killing curses hit him the same instant as the power building up around him discharged. The explosion shook the earth so hard houses collapsed. The lightning pressed the killing curses aside, wrapped itself around them, absorbed them, removed them, and continued.

Bellatrix had no time to dodge, the magic move too fast, her shield vaporized and her body lifted off the ground and the lightning hit her, and went nowhere else. Forcing itself into her skin, into her magic, and finally into her soul as Rahkesh gathered the leftover energy of the killing curses and added it.

Less than a second after she was hit Bellatrix's body exploded in a flash of light and crack of thunder, and vaporized. And Rahkesh turned to the four other death eaters, hurling lightening and ripping their skin off, then their flesh, then finally turning their skeletons to ash.

As he turned towards the vampires and aurors in the street Rahkesh realized abruptly that he was no longer in control, the thunderbird and serpent were. Later he realized that that realization was all that stopped him. His realization that he was not in control of his magic ended everything.

As he was so terrified of anyone reading his mind Rahkesh was equally terrified of losing any control over his mind, thoughts, and actions. Perhaps it was years of being manipulated and controlled, but he couldn't stand it. And the blank horror that washed through him swept aside both the powerful presences in his mind, so much more important was self control that he didn't even hear a protest as both serpent and thunderbird were effectively locked away again.

Rahkesh fell to his knees, shaking, calming himself slowly and pushing the panic aside. He was freezing cold from the fear, and the adrenaline had been killed by the terrifying thought that he was not in complete control of himself.

The clouds slowly dissipated and the lightning stopped, and with it the thunder. Lord Hadrian's vampires took the pause amongst the death eaters and their vampire allies to pick off most of them. Then the aurors and death eaters awoke again, but the fight was mostly over. A few struggles later the last of the death eaters had been subdued and Voldemort's vampires either killed or removed.

Moody found Rahkesh ten minutes later, still kneeling amongst the ashes and blackened, in some cases melted ground that he had electrocuted and fried. The cracked staff lying across his knees.

"Lad?" The ex auror asked carefully. Rahkesh rubbed a finger along the massive crack running through the staff and nodded absently. "You hurt?"

"No, not really." Rahkesh said, not really noticing the words. Wondering if the staff was fixable. Was it irreparably damaged? The thunderbird screamed again, but Rahkesh calmed it easily, he was in control now, and he wouldn't lose it so easily again.

The realization that he'd nearly attacked and killed every death eaters and every one of Voldemort's vampires, including the ones already captive, made him lose his breath and shake again. The power was addictive, he loved it, but he had to keep the violent side under better control. Only let it out briefly, and never let it take control over his mind. He shivered again, remembering the realization that _something_ else had been ruling his mind. Moody's hand on his shoulder made him jump, and he almost put a knife through the old auror in shock, then stopped himself and relaxed.

"I'm okay." He whispered. Touching the broken shattered wood again his eyes stung and he let out a long breath, he would have to find out how to fix it. It might just be the wood; the enchantments were probably still intact.

"Come on, you'll want to leave before the aurors get here." Moody said. Rahkesh nodded numbly and rose, slowly everything came back into focus. He nodded to Moody again.

"Yes. Sygra has already taken the portkey back home with her packages. I'll keep the horcrux safe until I know for sure how to destroy it. I'll let you know when I start trying things."

"Just get yourself away and get some rest. I have a feeling Akren is what you need after that." Moody replied sternly. Rahkesh nodded in agreement. The school, for all its danger, had become a sanctuary of sorts.

"Yeah. I'll contact you in a few days," he said, and tell Farov I want to know what happens with regard to the vampires they took a prisoners. And what happens when the Ministry hears all of this." Moody nodded.

"Shacklebolt and Tonks will keep us informed. We have monitoring devices in several influential offices."

"Umbridge?"

"The only people who think she's sane are the Minister, Fudge, and maybe a dozen others, everyone else thinks she's still as crazy as the centaurs drove her. There's a plan to put her in Mungo's for insanity, I'll let you know." Moody said, "now go."

Rahkesh picked up the staff and left, drinking a potion first to slide through the wards and apparating to several nameless dirty alleys and filthy pubs and muggle shopping centers and a train station before arriving at the Potter family cottage. Following any trail left, very unlikely – he took potions regularly to cloud any apparition tracing, would be very very difficult.

Sygra was waiting inside on his bed. Rahkesh picked her up without a word and put the diamond ball and horcrux into a box, then took a portkey to the entrance to the Akren Mountains.

Here a few of the Hell's Steeds were waiting for students who had left for the weekend. Rahkesh picked out the stallion he usually rode and called it to him.

During the ride back to Akren Rahkesh managed to remove all magical traces of what had been happening, and activated a seal he had built into the ordinary looking wooden box, a bloodmagic seal. No one else would open it. Sygra wrapped herself around his neck and said nothing, sensing his concentration and turmoil and offering reassurance.

Rahkesh avoided other students on his way back to his rooms, putting the box away under the small table beside his bed, and doing some careful transfiguration to make it look like part of the table, a solid piece, nothing hidden.

_How do you feel?_ He asked Sygra as she rotated an iguana egg about to a good angle to swallow it whole.

_Very well. My wyvern form was partially healed by the potion and spells, the rest can wait until tomorrow._ Sygra unhinged her jaw and began working on the egg. Rahkesh went to go find his friends. He found them lounging in Daray's room, practicing different methods of using throwing stars.

Rianae showed up a half hour later with a message from her mother. Rahkesh knew what it was as soon as she came into the room. Word traveled fast.

"So there was a bit of an event in England today." Rianae said.

"Yeah we know, Rahkesh just got back." Daray replied. Rahkesh froze, and then forced himself to relax.

"How did you know?"

"You smell like lightning, and your sweat and blood smells like adrenaline, fear, and a lot of dueling magics. And I'm good at guessing." The vampire replied. Rahkesh made a mental note to shower or do a scent removing spell next time. Daray had been far too observant since he'd done a smelling enhancing blood ritual.

"One of the aurors, our police back home, is an alumni, he was running an operation and needed a native that no one was likely to recognize to help." He admitted. Close enough to the truth.

"My mother says nearly a hundred muggle vampires were captured." Rianae said.

"Yes." Rahkesh agreed. "What will happen to them?"

"Killed." Silas replied. "All of them."

"Grandmother is there for the gathering. Maybe she'll send us some of their blood." Daray said.

"I'm sure she will, there'll be plenty. And I suppose Lord Hadrian or his generals might keep a few of the pretty ones as pets." Silas said.

"What's the difference between muggle vampire blood and other blood?' Ally asked. Ally wasn't squeamish about learning things like that.

"Different variety of flavors, a little bitter usually, or spicy." Daray said after a moment's thought. Rianae crossed the room and moved Rahkesh feet off a couch to sit down, giving him a careful look.

"You're not doing too well." She said finally, what happened?" Rahkesh checked to make sure Tyler wasn't in the room, she didn't know about their time travel, she wasn't. He rubbed a tired hand over his eyes and explained. Nuri's purring and the solid thunks of throwing stars and knives hitting target boards on the walls relaxing him as the group began to debate repair methods for the staff.

-

Enough battle to make up for the last few chapters? Satisfied with Rahkesh's performance?

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I've had a few emails with questions and they are getting repetitive so I'll answer them all again right now:

- This fic WILL continue after Voldemort's demise. In the final story Voldemort is really just a side plot.

- Rahkesh WILL NOT have any long lasting romantic interests. Of either gender.

- This fic WILL contain both m/m and m/f relationships, obviously so since all vampires are bisexual. I have stated this several times already I think. Vampires are bisexual and while there hasn't been a whole lot of mention of it (unless you were looking and reading carefully enough), there will be a bit more later.

- I have nothing at all against Europe and the UK, if Rowling had set this story in India then that country would be the bad guys and Asia would be screwed up, if she had set the story in Argentina then that country would be screwed.

- I'm sure you can figure out on your own where Draco Malfoy is. Just because I didn't actually state it doesn't mean you don't know. The clues were pretty obvious. You will see him again, pretty soon I think.


	31. Chapter 31

I just want to thank everyone for being patient, I've had a rought ime these last few weeks. My computer is working again but I've had an eye injury recently andwasn't been able to use a computer for a week.

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Many thanks for all the reviews! I really enjoy reading them, even when people complain. I like getting opinions and thoughts on the plot.

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Chapter 31

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"Look I don't know what happened!" Shacklebolt snapped. Thousands of miles away Rahkesh watched the image on the hippocampus-hair message screen.

"Damnit Kingsley those vampires saved them!"

"_I _know that!" Shacklebolt bellowed. Rahkesh raised an eyebrow as he felt the thunderbird flare up in response to Shacklebolt's anger, the threat calmed him instantly. That wasn't happening again. "The Ministry wouldn't listen. They killed two of them before the vampires had a clue what was happening, the others fled."

"_FLED_?" Rahkesh repeated disbelievingly. Vampire didn't _flee_ anything but a more powerful vampire. Farov's forces would never flee from a bunch of Ministry workers.

"Well, they left; the Ministry is saying they fled." Another critical mistake on the Ministry's part; the vampires would not be happy to have them telling everyone that. Rahkesh finally sat down and focused on the auror. Shacklebolt looked ready to collapse from exhaustion, and far too stressed out.

"What actually happened, you were there." Rahkesh asked gently. He'd heard the story, but he thought repeating it mgiht calm the auror, which it did. Shacklebolt dropped into his chair and rested his head in his hands as he replied.

"When the Ministry workers turned on them they just all stopped, looked at us, one of them nodded, he said something, I don't know what, and then they all just walked away." Shacklebolt said after thinking for a moment.

Rahkesh rubbed his forehead; he had a headache coming, and processed that. The day after the retrieval of the Cup of Hufflepuff and the battle he had been awakened hours before dawn by the message device. Shacklebolt's report had nearly made him faint. After the death eaters had been captured ministry officials had showed up, and turned on the vampires who had helped the aurors, killing two immediately. And the other vampires had left, rather than retaliate. That was so un-vampire as to be inconceivable, but Shacklebolt had been there.

Rahkesh had sent the auror to gather more information, the battle had been Friday night, and it was now Saturday morning. He could make a quick run home, contact Farov, ask…ask what? Why the vampires hadn't started a wizard extermination campaign? Ask why they hadn't gone an annihilated every Ministry employee alive? Asking wouldn't serve any purpose, the vampires would do it eventually, they hadn't yet because they thought they had a reason not to.

"I guess that's it then." He said finally.

"What?" Shacklebolt asked.

"The vampires are going to attack." Rahkesh replied, "and nothing is going to stop them now. All the Ministry had to do was talk, thank them; instead they attacked and managed to kill two. The fact that they left means that they're probably going to coordinate a massive counter attack. Most vampires I know tend to react quickly, but these ones are older and probably need permission to start fighting back. A week at the most I think." He couldn't know for sure, but the vampires were bound to retaliate, and do so to an extreme that the Ministry couldn't even imagine.

"Nothing we can do?" Shacklebolt asked, though Rahkesh noted he didn't seem upset and was not even really resigned. Shacklebolt was thinking about something. He wasn't angry - indeed Rahkesh thought he might even agree with the vampires.

"You told them to stop?" Rahkesh asked.

"Yeah. They didn't listen. Umbridge, I don't know how that bitch got there or why anyone listens to her, is trying to arrest me for consorting with halfbreeds."

"Umbridge will be gone soon." Rahkesh said softly.

"Oh?"

"The vampire assassins Moody and I talked about." Rahkesh replied. He would send a message to Cyala through Daray. Perhaps with a few people removed things would slow down and maybe, just maybe, this would stop before going further, unlikely.

Percy Weasely will likely take her place." Shacklebolt told him, the mention of the Weasely family outcast made Rahkesh flinch. That was one he didn't want to see dead. But he really didn't have time to care.

"He won't last too long either then. Shacklebolt, it might be a good idea to get out of there."

"I was thinking the same thing" Shacklebolt replied.

"They'll be hunting you already, Umbridge's cronies. Any countries not already joined to the anti-magical creature movement would help you if you requested asylum and explained what happened. Heck half of them would give you a medal for the attempt." Rahkesh said. Shacklebolt nodded slowly.

"I don't like to abandon my country."

"The government of which needs to be hit over the head with a brick." Rahkesh said. Shacklebolt snorted and nodded again. "Get out Kingsley, and take as many of the aurors as you can with you. After that battle, they'll go. They know now, and they don't believe in the Ministry at all. If they have someone to help, to lead, they'll all go. Loyalty is good Shacklebolt, but in this case loyalty may be shown through desertion. Not loyalty to the Ministry, but to the country."

"Maybe." Rahkesh didn't push him any, Shacklebolt could make his own decisions. But he knew what the auror would choose. The aurors had started to fall away from the Ministry when Azkaban was attacked, before that even. By now most would have changed their minds, they were loyal, but that loyalty might be best expressed by leaving. "That magic you used during the battle?"

"Need to know only." Rahkesh said sharply. Shacklebolt shrugged and nodded.

"I'll contact you later."

Once the screen was blank Rahkesh walked across the room and flopped onto his bed. Crap. He'd had real hope the vampires saving the aurors would change something. Anything. The aurors were now outside his abilities to handle. The vampires were not. He needed advice on what they were likely to do, and he needed to know what the overall effect would be, at Akren and everywhere else.

Rahkesh had figured out soon after arriving at Akren where the rooms of the school's most influential students were, in case he ever needed to know. Now he sought out Caroline, the unofficial leader of the Akren vampire students.

Caroline was in her last year of schooling and would graduate that summer, she had been the alpha-vampire (Ally's words for her position) of the vampire students for nearly two years. It was expected that her second, Hilda, would take over when she left, though Rahkesh suspected that the fights after the old students graduated and before the new ones showed up would be spectacular. He also knew that Daray was looking to take over from Hilda possibly as early as late in the next year. Caroline was very justice oriented and while absolutely ruthless in personal advancement she also considered the good of everyone else to be very important. She was a highly skilled organizer and at a young age was already joining vampiric organizations and taking on roles as a manager of sorts. She was also a very talented alchemist and quite good at bloodmagic and unarmed combat.

He could expect both female vampires to be in the room, probably working on their parts of the upcoming event to mix vampires openly with muggles. Both of them were part of the group of vampires currently managing the younger vampires involved, deciding what would happen after the initial announcement of their existence. The plan called for young vampires to enter into muggle universities and to learn alongside muggles, so that muggles got more exposure to them. Caroline and Hilda had volunteered to work on that part, as directors who were more in touch with the younger vampires than the city masters. Rahkesh knew Daray and Silas and Rianae had volunteered to help with the project by ebing among those sent in alongisde muggle students. Rahkesh couldn't help but pity anyone who wound up rooming with Daray.

Rahkesh was fairly confident that he could match Hilda in a fight, for a little while, and though he very much doubted he'd win, he could reasonably expect to escape alive. Adding Caroline made such a fight rather hopeless. Neither of them had shown any inclination for feeding on him yet, but he had heard of Caroline feeding on many human students, though Hilda apparently preferred fae blood to human if given a choice.

As he approached her rooms Rahkesh sent out a telepathic signal ahead of himself, and felt an alert vampire mind catch it. It was like throwing a rope and sending a message down it. He let the though fly across that he needed to speak to her and had information on the new developments in England. Caroline sent back a brief flash of agreement, and a door down the hallway swung open magically.

As he got closer Rahkesh sensed a third presence, this one a veela, and then a fourth and fifth, both vampires, one male one female. The veela he could guess was Caroline's "pet" a rare male veela whose name he'd never bothered to learn and whom she kept around basically as a slave, though Silashad once said thatthe relationship was entirely voluntary. Pretty creature who Rahkesh had never heard speak muchor have any opinions of his own, and probably not too much of a threat. But he did not recognize the two vampires. One of them was an Akren graduate, who wore the "tag" on her aura, the male vampire was a student. He didn't know either of them, but it was too late to turn back now.

Rahkesh entered the room, and noted at once that Caroline had enchanted her rooms to make them bigger inside than outside. He'd have to try that himself. The four vampires were seated around a coffee table, there were two extra chairs in the circle, Caroline's pet veela was kneeling beside her with his head on her knee, apparently asleep.

"Rahkesh." Hilda said, "what is it?" Rahkesh took one of the remaining chairs.

"A few weeks ago," he began, "I was contacted by an Akren alumnus working in England, he needed help with the current situation there and he needed someone who knew the area." The others nodded, that was perfectly reasonable. "Friday evening he called me home to help with a situation that was developing with the vampires and death eaters and aurors." He proceeded to tell them everything, leaving out any mention of the theft of the horcrux.

By the time he was done the vampires, and Caroline's veela, were looking murderous, Rahkesh guessed that they would have enough sense not to attack him, but the next mortal witch or wizard they found would probably not be so lucky.

"Guess I'll go do riot control." The female he didn't know said. "There're going to be a lot of angry vampires out there. Better they get calmed down quickly so they don't attack everyone." She rose and left the room.

"Wake the other vampire students; we're going to need help getting ahead of this." Caroline told the male vampire, he left in a hurry, sending out telepathic signals.

"What will happen?" Rahkesh asked.

"The priority right now will be to contact everyone who isn't at the gathering, tell them the news and give them a chance to react and get over it. The major problem is that when they hear about this a lot of vampires might form mobs and just start attacking muggles and mortal magic users everywhere, even in vampire-friendly places. We can't have that happen. I haven't heard of this from anyone else so I'm guessingthe gatheringstill working on the same thing we are, or the gathering is arguing about what to do and when and haven't done anything yet. If we can get everybody informed and calm then we can plan a retaliation that won't harm anyone who isn't involved and doesn't deserve it."

Caroline opened a desk and pulled out three hippocampus hair communication devices and four communication mirrors, she handed a few to Hilda and the two began contact people, Rahkesh guessed most of them to be family members and the higher-ups in their home territories.

Moments later vampire students began to stream into the room. The sitting room expanded to hold them all, new furniture was being conjured everywhere. Caroline signaled with a nod for Rahkesh to leave and he did. The vampires had things to do and so did he. His friends needed to get out of Europe, now.

XXXX

"Well, I had intended to take the Quibbler international, my brother think's it would do well outside the UK." Mr. Lovegood said, "perhaps this is a blessing in disguise, a reason to go elsewhere."

"I would prefer America." Mrs. Lovegood told her husband. A tall gray-haired woman with a kind face she was already making a list of things to take at once and where to go. She was the organized one, Harry decided, Mr. Lovegood was a bit absentminded. "How long do you think we have?" She asked Harry.

"The vampires won't target you directly, the Quibbler has been printing the truth and I'm sure they know that."

"Another reason to leave, we've been accused of going against the new laws." Mr. Lovegood said. "In fact they'll probably be ready to arrest soon."

"We'll be out by Monday." Mrs. Lovegood decided, "and put it in the next issue that the Ministry has been threatening you for printing the truth."

"An excellent idea." Harry agreed, "I can give you an account of what actually happened from an unnamed auror." Mr. Lovegood chuckled.

"Of course, how high up?"

"High enough." Harry replied, which was enough for Mr. Lovegood.

"Luna has been asking to leave for months now. She wants to enroll in the Salem Academy." He told Harry.

"I'm glad you're leaving, hopefully you can convince others to leave too." Harry said standing to leave. Most people who read the Quibbler were suspicious of the Ministry and getting them to leave shouldn't be too hard. "I'm off to the Weasely's now, I would suggest you put a ward up on the edges of the property to alert you to aurors."

XXXX

Harry knocked on the door of the Burrow, it sprang open in seconds to show Ginny. She stared at him for a moment, saying nothing.

"Afternoon Ginny, I need to speak with you and your parents." Harry said, he knew Mr. Weasely was home, he'd asked Moody to tell Mr. Weasely to go home around lunch time and Moody said he had done so.

"Sure Harry, um, how are you?" Ginny finally asked awkwardly as she held the door open for him.

"Quite horrible." Harry replied as he closed the door behind him. "Afternoon Mr. Weasely."

"Ah Harry, Moody said you'd be around. I suppose you know about what happened last night?" Mr. Weasely said, gesturing for Harry to take a seat, which he did.

"I was there. The question is - what do _you_ know?" Harry replied. Ron was standing in the doorway to the stairs, staring at him. Harry pretended he didn't see him. Hogwarts was letting students home on weekends now, the parents had insisted. He would rather avoid a confrontation with Ron, but in case that could not be prevented Bill was home. Harry knew form the twins that Molly wanted to renovate part of the porch and rebuild the shed, he had owled Bill before dawn asking the oldest Weasley son to come home with the excuse of helping his mother, brother, and sister with the work.

"The aurors got into trouble with the death eaters, vampires showed up helping the death eaters, then other Ministry workers got involved. Many of the vampires and death eaters were killed or captured…where were you?" Mr. Weasley asked.

"Helping. And most of what you just said is incorrect." Harry replied. Mr. Weasely paused and waited. "We, Moody and I, got word that the death eaters and a few of their vampire allies were going to attack a mostly-magical neighborhood. We told the vampires and they showed up in time to save everyone. Then-"

"Wait a minute! You just said the vampires were allies with the death eaters!" Ron shouted.

"There are two factions amongst the vampires; one group is with Voldemort one group is against him." Harry explained.

"What! Harry you must be confused, they're dark creatures, they're all with him." Ron said.

"No they're not Ron, remember what the papers and auror Shacklebolt told us about the muggles-turned-vampire siding with Voldemort along with the youngest magical vampires, and the old magical vampires being against Voldemort?" Ginny reminded her brother.

"They _say_ they're against him, don't tell me you actually believe what a vampire says!" Ron sneered. Harry frowned; he hadn't often seen his friend sneer before.

"Just like you can't actually believe what a werewolf says, right Ron?" Harry asked, "I'm sure Remus will be glad to hear that you still think like that."

"I- Harry that's not the same!"

"Yes it is. You've never met a vampire Ron, not one, not of either side, therefore you can't judge them any better than you could judge a werewolf before meeting Remus." Harry turned back to Mr. Weasely. "The vampires had picked off the original attacking force of death eaters and vampires when one of the death eaters managed to send word back to their base that they'd lost. Voldemort, or whoever was responsible for planning that attack, sent out a massive force of death eaters and vampires to retake the neighborhood. An alarm went out to the aurors and they arrived soon after Voldemort's forces did. The vampires who are working with us figured that the aurors would appreciate a good fight and let them deal with Voldemort's people."

"What they ran off and left the aurors?" Ron said.

"No. For a vampire that's a gesture of respect. They thought the aurors would want a little fun and their not getting involved immediately was a sign that they thought the aurors were good enough to handle the situation on their own. Unfortunately the aurors weren't good enough. They started loosing quickly. Once the vampires realized that the aurors weren't as good as they'd thought, and in real trouble, they joined in again and got rid of all of Voldemort's vampires and death eaters. Then they went and started healing the aurors. The Ministry employees, who I think were rallied by Umbridge and Percy hoping to make a save and get some good press, came in to see the vampire casting spells on the aurors. Those were healing spells but it seems they assumed them to be attacking the aurors, a stupid assumption since there wasn't any fighting going on and everyone was being quite friendly. The vampires greeted them and asked them to help move the prisoners off to Azkaban, since the aurors were all injured, the Ministry workers attacked the vampires and managed to kill two."

"Guess they're not so powerful after all eh?" Ron said with a grin. Harry felt his stomach drop out as he realized that Hermione's thought that Ron really wanted to become a vampire slayer was the complete truth.

"The vampires had only agreed to help save the people in that neighborhood after a lot of argument. They had already given up on Britain's magical humans. Now that the Ministry went and betrayed them after they saved the aurors there's no hope for peace." Harry finished quickly. "And Ron, they are very hard to kill, and you can forget any derma of your of being a glorious vampire slayer. You'll only wind up dead."

"How would you know?" Ron yelled, face turning red, "they're obviously not as tough as everyone says they are, and you're all just believing everything they tell you."

"I have practice fights all the time with them Ron, I don't think most of the aurors are capable of taking a vampire one on one, never mind someone with no actual fighting training."

"You're just like Hermione; you think I can't do anything! Well I've got news for you – oh great Harry Potter – when I graduate I'm going to become the best of the vampire hunters! Then we'll see who's capable of what!" Ron slammed the door as he left the house, breaking the glass, Harry fixed it with a flick of his wand. By this point he was well passed being upset by anything Ron said.

"Ron! Ronald Weasely!" Molly Weasely yelled after him.

"Don't bother, not right now." Harry said, "give it a bit and try again later."

"Are they going to kill him?" Ginny asked Harry.

"In all likelihood it is safe enough for you to remain here. The vampires are not indiscriminate you know. They choose each and every victim with great care." Harry replied after a short pause, he had to say this right, so that they would side with the vampire against Ron.

"And how do they do that?" Mrs. Weasely asked.

"I have found that the ruling vampires, the old ones and their followers and allies, are very fair minded, unusually kind, and highly intelligent. When they attack they will harm only those who hate vampires without a reasonable, logical, justification for doing so. They will attack those who are bigoted, prejudiced against creatures they've never met, and those who equate vampires with inherent evil. Those who hate vampires, werewolves, centaurs, the fae, and other magical creatures will be their main targets." Harry explained.

"People like Ron." Bill said, having come inside just after Ron stormed out. "People like Percy."

"Yes, exactly. Ron is everything the vampires hate. And, unfortunately, their hatred is completely justified." Harry said, Mrs. Weasely gave a small sob, "for now his age will protect him, but once he graduates that won't help him any. Vampires read minds, and they question everyone they capture under vertisarum, so that there is no room for accidents. Ron doesn't just think like the world's worst bigots, he projects those thoughts, reading his mind will take no effort at all."

"What can we do?" Mrs. Weasely asked.

"Nothing." Harry replied.

"There has to be something! We'll go away; we'll find a new home somewhere else!" She turned to Mr. Weasely, who had gone very pale and was sitting very still, not moving.

"No Molly, I don't think we can. Ron can't." Mr. Weasely glanced at Harry, his eyes looked dead. "There was an announcement that came into the Ministry today. The immigration rules are being changed, everywhere that isn't on the anti-vampire list. They're screening all applicants for biases against magical creatures and certain forms of magic. People who hate vampires, merpeople, centaurs, they're not welcome in any of those places. People who believe that werewolves and vampires are evil, people who are too radically against magics they think are "dark", they aren't welcome."

"Oh gods," Mrs. Weasely said softly. "We can't leave Arthur, we can't! I won't lose another son!"

Harry wondered if the new program he had gotten Moody and Shacklebolt and Remus to work on, re-education for people from the anti-dark creature countries, might have caused this. He was almost sure it had. They had suggested one thing, and the governments of those countries had decided that simply not allowing certain people to enter would be easier than trying to change their views. One on hand he agreed. It got those people together in places where the vampires would harm only those who deserve it, and those that we're so radically bigoted wouldn't be affected much. But on the other hand a lot of families might be broken up, and it was likely that his former best friend would be among the early victims. Surely Ron's prejudice was too strong not to be noticed. The first vampire he met would sense it.

"Ron has chosen his path," he finally said, "and perhaps if he has to walk it alone, it will force him to think more. Not being able to rely on anyone might be helpful, and it might give him more of a chance." Unlikely, but if Ron had no one there was a chance he would, being insecure, start thinking carefully about everything he heard and saw, and change his mind. Or he'd fall victim to those in the Ministry who thought that they could eradicate vampires and be the heroes of the world. Which, currently, seemed to be far more likely.

"That may be true," Mr. Weasely agreed.

"If the vampires take him, good riddance." Bill proclaimed when everyone had gone silent, thinking. "They won't kill him, and maybe being one of their servants will get him to change his mind, once he starts being around them all the time." Harry remembered that he had heard of slaves being set free when their perceptions changed, and Ron's mind had never been too hard to sway. Except when dealing with things or people he considered ark and evil. But he had accepted Remus quickly enough. Possibly because he'd forgotten he was a werewolf, but he had.

"That is a strong possibility, unless of course they decide he's a lost cause." He said, hesitantly agreeing with Bill.

"Ginny, you're going abroad for your last year of schooling." Mr. Weasely decided, Harry prepared for the coming firestorm, but Ginny frowned, and then finally nodded slowly.

"Luna is going to Salem Academy in America." Harry supplied. Mr. Weasely nodded.

"But, for now, I think we'll stick it out," Mr. Weasely said, looking at Mrs. Weasely, who nodded vigorously. "At least until we can take Ron with us." Privately Harry thought that unlikely to happen, but miracles did occur. He couldn't ask Farov to make any exceptions, that would have to be cleared with the Master of London, and he wasn't going to do that either, but the Weasely's were unlikely targets. Ron and Percy were the only ones likely to be a problem. And as much Harry hated to turn his back in his friend, he didn't think he could do much. He could try a practice duel with Ron…but somehow he thought that would only increase his friend's resentment, and he didn't put it past Ron to start going into some of the worst dark magics to gain power. For now Ron was on his own.

Harry left the Weasely's a half hour later, after discussing what was happening at the Ministry with Mr. Weasely for a little while. Ginny followed him down the path to the edge of the wards, she hadn't said a word but Harry guessed she wanted to talk.

"I'll talk to Hermione and Neville before I go, anyone else you think I should see?" He asked her finally, getting tired of her silence.

"Dean, Seamus, Parvarti and Lavender, Cho too I suppose. They can tell everyone else what you tell them."

"I'm concerned they might not get it word for word, and the information might get mixed up and twisted." Harry said, he could use a little telepathic nudging to get their minds to get it right, but he felt dirty doing that to someone.

"Send them a letter with a written account. They can show the letter around." Ginny said. Harry nodded slowly, he would have to work on handwriting concealments charms, and make sure it didn't sound like his writing. Rahkesh wrote in a different style than Harry Potter anyway, he had changed that early on, but he would need to be very careful. No explanation for his presence that night, nothing, no mention of Moody or anyone else.

"I hate writing letters," he admitted. "Fingerprints removed, wax that comes from some random shop in some out of the way place incase someone tries that route, rent an owl, wear a disguise doing so, touch nothing in the post office, blank shoes so no foot prints, blurring charms and forget-me charms on my clothes." Ginny stared at him, and then nodded slowly. Funny how good he'd gotten at hiding everything. He hadn't thought of half of that when he'd first decided to change his identity and leave, but he learned fast, and was lucky to have survived the lessons.

"The assassins."

"Found me the one time I made a mistake, left my fingerprints somewhere unsafe. I've altered my fingerprints since then, but I don't want to have to do it again, so I have to be very careful."

"Why do I think you're actually enjoying that challenge?" Ginny asked after a moment, making Harry flinch. She was getting far too perceptive, war did that to people.

"Because I do enjoy it? I don't know why but I do." He replied, Ginny just shook her head and gave him a look that told him she thought he was mildly crazy. "How have things been at Hogwarts?"

"Boring, nervous. Everyone misses you, even some of the Slytherins, and it's a mess of fear, nervous breakdowns happening everywhere. I can't wait for the weekend so I can come home and get away from it all. Poor McGonagal, she'll keep on trying but at this point there isn't a whole lot to be done, and everyone is either going to be home schooled, or go elsewhere next year." Ginny said, and Harry realized just how tired she was.

"Remember that luck potion, if anything happens."

"I'll remind Ron too, not that he actually deserves a chance like that." Ginny muttered. "Are they really okay people Harry? The vampires?"

"Yes. The problem right now is that there are too many vampires. The youngest have overpopulated and they all want to create their own little covens and feel powerful. The old ones are ready to kill them all off, such exterminations happen every few centuries, and Voldemort returns just in time to recruit scared young vampires. The ones I know are just fine, temperamental, sometimes very cold, but for the most part they're alright, some of them are even very friendly. You just have to be very perceptive and very careful. They exist in a strict hierarchy Ginny, not much unlike that of a wolf pack, if you're attuned to everything, there're whole conversations going on through telepathy and body language, which most people miss. If you learn to look, then they're pretty easy to get along with, and they make excellent friends."

"Are there any vampires at the Salem Academy?"

"I don't know, I'd imagine so. The vampires have been trying to integrate more into magical human society, and all magical schools in the States accept vampire students, and they have to learn somewhere. There're probably quite a few vampires there." He'd have to check on that. He was sure there were vampires, and werewolves, though probably not any fae.

"I look forward to it then; I'd like to actually meet some."

"I'll send you a book on Occlumency." Harry replied, "so they can't pick through your mind." Ginny nodded, "I'll see you later, possibly not until summer."

"Voldemort?"

"We've made some very exciting progress." Harry replied, reluctant to say more for fear of listening spells. He was known to be a friend of the Weasely's so not only Voldemort, but also the Ministry and some individuals might have put spells on the property. Ginny turned back towards the house and Harry apparated away; he'd stop by Neville's place next.

XXXX

Rahkesh urged the Firehorse into a run, he'd spent most of the day contacting old friends, and he wanted to be back at Akren before nightfall. Surely some of the vampire students would be heading home that night to speak with friends and family, and he'd rather not meet them on the way. They'd be angry at mortals and some of the more impulsive ones might misplace that anger onto him, he'd rather not take the risk.

The dying light tinged the mountain peaks pink and orange, and Rahkesh saw small white heads dodging away from the path amongst the evergreens, the Yecks were out. After a long winter staying close to their caves the snow was gone and they were roving again, he'd have to be careful. He'd never heard of them attacking anyone except during the trials for the new students, but he didn't want to be the first victim if they did get annoyed or bored.

Back at his rooms Rahkesh removed the wards and slipped inside, checking for unwelcome visitors even though none of the vampires would be up to their usual games tonight. The Akren students were all well attuned to empathy and telepathy and would be very quite right now, letting the vampires chill out before getting back to the usual cutthroat competition. He was glad they were taking a break for the night, he was exhausted. He hadn't gotten more than a few hours sleep since Thursday and he needed to rest. A long low hiss stopped him as he tossed his traveling cloak over a chair. Sygra was coiled up in her cage, eyes half glazed and looking glum. Apparently the magics she had used to retrieve the cup had caused her to start shedding her skin a week early. She couldn't tell why but Rahkesh and Sygra both assumed it was the change from wyvern to snake coupled with using her magics to go through rock, and maybe even exposure to the magics in Voldemort's rooms. Rahkesh moved over to the cage and knelt down beside the serpent, she looked extremely dreary. She hated shedding skin and always got depressed and lethargic.

_How long_? He asked her.

_A few days, it's not ready yet, aches though_. Sygra replied slowly, shifting a little uncomfortably. Shedding skin wasn't fun.

_Sorry, anything I can do?_

_Dim the lighting in the cage a bit, not all dark, just darker, makes it easier to sleep for the next few days until the skin is ready to come off._

_Sleeping potion?_

_We've tried six, none of them helped. _Sygra said with a heavy sigh. Rahkesh shrugged and cast a spell on the glass of the cage to cloud it, dimming the light inside. Sygra gave a soft huff and changed position uncomfortably, grumbling about lucky humans who didn't shed their whole skins. Rahkesh ignored her, there wasn't much he could do about it.

He pulled a box out from under the bed; it was disguised as a dropped toenail clipping, and took off the concealing spells and enlarged it. In here was the last of the disguise stuff he needed, the fake skin to cover his scar.

Changing out of his traveling clothes Rahkesh went over to Silas room. Daray's room had somehow gotten blown up – Daray wouldn't say how – so they were meeting in Silas room. Inside Nuri was stretched out on his back, all four big shiny black paws in the air, in front of the fireplace. Ally, Silas, and Daray were sitting around the big cat in arm chairs. Daray and Silas carefully going over Rahkesh's shattered staff to see if it was repairable. Satan let out a puff of fire and smoke in greeting and Rahkesh rubbed behind his ears, the bat growled approvingly.

"What are the vampires doing?" Rahkesh asked, taking the last seat. Nuri purred up at him and pawed his knee, asking for attention.

"Rianae went home, her mother's one of the vampiric ambassadors remember? She'll have an update tomorrow. Right now everyone's just trying to stop the riots." Silas said.

"There were riots then?" Rahkesh asked, he'd had some hope that it might get settled without violence. Nuri reached up a paw and started flicking his shoelaces about.

"Oh yes. The United States and Chile are particularly violent right now. Master of New York called out all his forces and killed some three hundred rioting vampires to stop them from attacking muggles and magical humans. They were young vampires of course, primarily muggles-turned-vampire, with about a hundred magical humans turned vampire thrown in. All under four hundred years old. That stopped up the eastern half of the country, the south and the west coast are still having violent riots." Ally said, "I've been in contact with mum and dad all evening – my older brother works law enforcement and he says it was pretty awful for a while there. But it's stopping. Everyone agrees with the vampires that the British ministry was wrong and stupid and needs to be punished, and that understanding has everyone on the vampire's side, so they have no one to fight."

"How are things in the UK?" Daray asked.

"Strange." Rahkesh replied after a moment to think, "there're a lot of people who see this as a victory and are very happy, and a lot of people who know enough not to trust what the newspapers say and are wondering what really happened, and a lot of people who are getting very worried. And then there are those who are happy because they're with Voldemort and they want a Ministry-vampire war because they think it will kill off their opponents in both groups."

"When does the gathering end?" Ally asked.

"Tomorrow, tonight actually. I don't think they'll extend it. The Master of London wants those responsible for killing his two vampires, he sent one of his lieutenants after then today, my grandmother's half-sister Kylara is his second, she's heading that operation. Farov is going to the prophet and whatever other papers you have over there to give the real story, under vertisarum. The master of France is planning an extermination of young vampires to begin in a week or two. Our family will start going after the witches and wizards causing trouble in the various European governments very soon." Daray updated them.

"I hope there's some left for us by summer break." Silas said, looking a bit gloomy. Nuri purred at him and rolled over to rub his check on Silas knee. Silas scrathed his neck and the panther draped his front half across his legs. "Can't have you getting bored with no one ot pounce on cna we?" He asked the panther, Nuri growled his agreement.

"I'm sure there will be." Rahkesh reassured him, "there're plenty of anti-vampire imbeciles to go around." Including his former best friend. But they'd be starting off with government workers, and then working down into regular citizens. "How is it?" He asked Daray, who was examining the remains of Rahkesh's staff.

"Don't know. None of the magics are working. I don't know if it had a core, but if it did then the core is still intact, but the magics seems to have been turned off." Daray replied.

"I think it would be possible to get most of them working again, but it might be best not to do so, magics that strong may have relied on the strength of the wood to keep them from imploding or falling apart." Silas said, handing the staff back to Rahkesh.

"Perhaps you should seek out that demon you met, Sharahak." Ally suggested.

"Yes, he lived with the Chachapoyaro for a ling time, and he knew a lot of their magics." Rahkesh said, knowing he wouldn't have the time to find Sharahak, if he was still around. There was too much to do right now. "Maybe over summer break."

"Maybe, I have a feeling everyone is going to be pretty busy. That includes you – the vampires at the gathering are aware of you Rahkesh. Farov made his report of the battle publicly. My grandmother was very pleased; she got to act superior for already knowing the mortal who can control lightning." Daray warned him. Rahkesh's blood went cold. Then he stopped and wondered why that bothered him. The respect or just curiosity of the old ones could be useful, and probably not dangerous in any way. So long as none of them wanted his blood. And if they figured out who he was? Namach probably knew already, and he wouldn't be surprised if Cyala and the headmistress did as well. They probably wouldn't care at all, so long as he didn't join Voldemort. And perhaps knowing of his survival of the killing curse would be useful in his necromancy training. But he wasn't going to tell them, he really didn't want to have to deal with it. If they found out then they could bring it up on their own, he wasn't about to help them there.

Rahkesh returned to his rooms a few hours later, and noticed immediately that the small sapphire set on a small black velvet cushion on his desktop was glowing steadily. A wicked smile crept over his face as he tapped it twice and the glowing stopped. Siraka was safe and alive and working her way into the ranks of Voldemort's serpents. His spy was in place, and soon Nagini's time would come.

XXXX

She didn't hold the rank she once had: the new minister didn't trust her like good old Cornelius did. But her remaining allies and those who had relied upon her for their own power had been quick to force him to take her on as a personal advisor, and so she did have a fairly nice office. And it was quiet. Dolores Umbridge opened the door, ignoring the auror who stood beside it, she had asked for a personal guard – the was no telling when the nasty half-breed centaurs would make another try for her. They knew she knew what they really were, mongrels trying to break down wizarding kind, but this time she would be ready. Prepared, there was more than the auror to defend her. She glanced at the bowl of garlic on her desk; she couldn't wait until the first vampire was brought in.

Outside in the hallway the auror straightened and stood still, watching the approaching shadow. A pair of eyes glowed and sparkled with a frightening fire, but the auror was not afraid. This one was not coming for him. The vampire paused in front of him, becoming eerily still, not breathing, no motion, no pulse, gazing steadily into his eyes. The aurro had known he would come, and had already made his decision. His family was out of the country, and he would leave now too. He inclined his head respectfully, and lowered what little mental defense he had, but he was not telepathically aware enough to stop this vampire anyway, and he didn't even sense the quick scan. The vampire took only a few seconds determining that he was no threat and he could find no reason to hate vampires, and so did not.

Umbridge frowned and waved her wand again, but the lamp did not turn on. Vowing to show the maintenance people exactly why they should take special care with _her_ office she walked over to see what was wrong, unable to see the lamp she cast a quick lumos spell. But the light was sucked up in the shadows and gone instantly.

"Madam Umbridge?" A silky voice asked. Umbridge whirled, wand coming up.

"Are you Madam Umbridge?" The voice asked again.

"Yes I am. And I'll have you know this is the office of a high ranking ministry official! You would do well to show yourself and explain your presence!" Her voice was very shrill, she was very frightened…their blood always had a nice tang to it when they were scared.

"You know what madam? That is an excellent idea." A pair of glowing eyes appeared only a few feet away, followed by a man who seemed to step directly out of the shadows. Umbridge's wand clattered to the floor as she made the mistake of meeting the vampires' eyes. Eyes that locked with hers and began to channel the mind magics vampires use to seduce. She stood absolutely still as her mind was overwhelmed and the vampire approached, tilted her head to the side with one hand, and bit into her neck.

Once assured she was unconscious from blood loss the vampire cast a spell to keep her asleep, and to cause her body to replenish the blood quickly. She'd have plenty to drink in the cell and the magics would move the liquids towards blood replenishment much more quickly than the body normally would. He pulled a bag to of his cloak, a bag with a hidden room inside of it, and picking Umbridge up with ease he lifted her into the bag. Her body vanishing into it as if into a black hole. He zipped the bag and tucked it back under his cloak and left the office, not even glancing at the auror on the way out. The auror, knowing he'd be fired once it was discovered she had vanished on his watch, went home that night, packed the last of his belongings, and took a portkey to the carpet station connected to Diagon Alley. He'd be in Spain with his family in two hours and his new citizenship was already approved. Spain was one of the last holdouts in Europe that didn't mind magical creatures and practiced all forms of magic, he had little doubt the government would refuse to hand him over.

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See I'm not dead! And I haven't abandoned this. Sorry for scaring anyone. Note: if I decided to give up on this fic I will tell you way beforehand, and it will not be happening, I have too many ideas.

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Question for readers: Harassment is when you persistently torment someone, sexual harassment is when the persistent attacks are sexual in nature, what is it called when a vampire is harassing you for your blood? I need a term for it and I can't think of anything.

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	32. Chapter 32

I usually like to answer back to a few reviews in this section, but since most of the reviews were the same I won't be answering any individuals.

Nearly everyone mentioned that Mrs. Lovegood was dead, I knew that but I thought Mr. Lovegood had remarried, so I went back to check and it turns out I had misread, he didn't remarry. Sorry about that, but since this is fan_fiction _I have no intention of going back and changing it, they're not important characters.

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I had an email (sorry I don't remember who sent it, I accidentally deleted it), asking why I don't name my chapters. I've been using numbers but that email made me think so I'm going to try adding an actual name for the chapter.

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Chapter 32 – or – Watch the Ministry Screw Itself.

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A warm summer rain was falling from gray skies and running in ribbons across the big glass windows. Outside the grass and new leaves were bright green and the ground was so spongy from the three days of rain that anyone taking any sort of tactics or battle class had been called out to practice fighting in mud and flashflood conditions. Their class had been a rough wet fight with muggle weapons on the steepest hillside the teachers could find. It had collapsed several times as the students fought back and forth in six teams over a few yards of mud. The eventual massive landslide had put three in the hospital after being crushed under boulders and trees. The healing students had had a long lesson working on them, and plenty of practice in removing mud from a person's lungs. Fortunately none of his friends had been injured too much and Rahkesh's dislocated shoulder had been easy to heal.

Rahkesh picked out a spot on the lowest rib of the skeleton hanging from the wall, and cracked the bone with a flick of his wand, using no incantation. Beside him Silas and Daray were doing a 3D jigsaw puzzle with silent levitation spells, in the air. While casting general spells without an incantation wasn't particularly difficult, exact precision with silent magic could be _very _difficult and therefore he, Ally, and their three vampire friends had devoted most of the day to practicing it.

"I can't wait for summer break; my family's going to Hawaii for a week." Ally said, "I really need a rest from this." Rahkesh hmmed a response. He was unlikely to get any rest. "Then I volunteered for one of the support groups helping new immigrants get settled."

"Helping them?" Rianae asked.

"There're a lot of people coming to America from Europe, and many of them are not on the best of terms with their former countries. While none of the anti-vampire countries can legally operate inside the States a lot of them have been, trying to track down people from government organizations, and the military, who have defected over the vampire laws."

"Your brother is working with them?" Rahkesh guessed.

"Yeah, I'm going to help him set up wards, extra protection for those people. There was a family from France where both parents had been guards of the French minister and left because they didn't agree with the anti-vampire laws. Their house blew up with them inside it a week ago. The French are denying all involvement. So now there needs to be extra security. I have some of the training and my brother's been working for them for ten years so I trying to talk my way into a temporary job for the summer."

"Our friend the counter-espionage specialist." Daray laughed, "sounds like fun." It did, maybe he'd have to meet Ally's brother. The two siblings got along very well so he couldn't be too bad, probably a lot like Ally, who, while occasionally a bit frightening, was a wonderful friend.

"The vampires have declared war on the anti-vampire countries, do you think that the mortal governments will go to war with each other? If they're willing to break the law to kill those that leave over the anti-vampire laws then they are just about at war aren't they?" Rahkesh asked. He hadn't even thought of that yet.

"I think it will be an informal undeclared war. Vampires, werewolves and other magical creatures are the key here. They have equal freedoms and protection in some countries and are supposed to be killed on sight in others. I think a lot of countries will help them and let them do most of the actual fighting. Once it's over they'll then help rebuild, but it won't be a full war." Rianae said.

"You know this could end with the anti-magical creature countries running out of any mortal human magic users." Daray said. Which had been Rahkesh's original plan. A plan that seemed to be happening much more quickly than he had expected.

"Unlikely, I was talking to my brother this morning and he says there are a lot of very active hate groups that are trying to make werewolves illegal." Ally said, "however there's been a law back home for nearly two hundred years saying that werewolves and vampire and other sentient magical beings have complete equal rights."

"I thought the American minister offered all of the anti-vampire or anti-werewolf activists free flying-carpet tickets to any place in Europe? And those groups are being so harassed that they might just leave." Rianae asked.

"They didn't all leave." Ally said, "my brother's going on a raid of one of their cult houses this weekend."

"Can't wait till the muggles find out about us." Daray said gleefully. All the vampire students at Akren seemed to be looking forward to the chaos.

"You're not just revealing your existence. Once muggles know vampires exist they'll know about magic, and then the existence of all magical beings will come out." Rahkesh complained, the vampires didn't seem to care what the other species thought of their plan.

"Yep." Silas agreed cheerfully.

"There will be a lot of people who want to stop you. Doing that could get rid of any of the goodwill you've gained by being persecuted." Ally pointed out.

"Once we've revealed our existence everyone will be too busy to care. Do you really think the City Masters are going to stop for anything? Namach and my grandmother delayed them from doing so twenty years ago, but even those two agree that the right time will be very soon." Daray pointed out.

"The elves might be upset, but Namach's handling that angle, their existence won't be revealed, too dangerous." Rianae said. "No point in provoking them."

"There are a lot of mortal muggles who consider themselves vampires, they even drink blood," Silas said, "won't it be entertaining to stop by some of their parties to say hello?" The three vampires laughed. "Of course once the muggles know our full powers there will be a lot of them wanting to be turned."

"Muggles are so strange. I remember my father used to go to muggle nightclubs when he was younger and pick out a person and explain to them that vampires existed and he was one. A lot of them wanted to be turned, the others asked if he needed a human slave." Daray said, "toying with the muggles will be so much fun." Rahkesh and Ally traded looks and wondered if the vampires remembered that some muggles would go the other extreme and form anti-vampire movements.

The hippocampus communication sheet began to glow. Rahkesh decided that since his friends knew he was working with allies back home he didn't need to be too secretive. He cut his finger on the tiny needle attached to it and let a drop of blood fall onto the center of the sheet. Shacklebolt's face appeared in seconds.

"Afternoon Rahkesh." The auror said, he seemed unusually happy.

"Who died?" Rahkesh replied, Shacklebolt blinked, and then shook his head.

"I hate the days that someone's death, well actually abduction, are cause for joy." He complained. "Special Advisor Madam Umbridge was abducted from her office. The auror supposed to be guarding her has relocated to Spain. The Minster's furious, and everyone's scared. But I haven't noticed a single tear, funny that."

"Daray?" Rahkesh asked. Daray considered, and then replied softly so that Shacklebolt couldn't hear.

"We haven't started yet, Lord Hadrian the master of London, wanted to pick off two or three before setting our family on the rest."

"When do you start?"

"Grandmother said two to three days."

"Shacklebolt the vampires are sending in a special team, they'll hit soon, they've got your name on the do-not-harm list, but I think biting doesn't count as harming with this lot." Rahkesh advised. Daray snickered and nodded, then gave an exaggerated lick to each of his large pearly white fangs; Rahkesh flipped him off and purposefully turned his back on the vampire, trusting his shields to tell him if he attacked.

"I hope Tonks is on that list."

"She is, pass the word on to her. And make some getaway plans."

"I did."

"Alright, anything else new?"

"A possible move to outlaw fae, they seem to be in league with the ferocious human-hating werewolves and vampires." Shacklebolt's voice was dry and angry.

"Aw shit." Ally muttered.

"I'm not going to ask you to try to intervene on that." Rahkesh said quickly when Shacklebolt opened his mouth, "it's a lost cause at this point." He turned to find Rianae.

"The fae?"

"Will probably declare war, after lodging a single formal protest just for the publicity." Rianae replied, and Rahkesh figured she ought to know. Her mother was the vampire ambassador. Not an official ambassador as the humans knew them, but a go between from vampire to fae and sometimes between the magical mortals and the fae.

"You heard that?" He asked Shacklebolt.

"Yes."

"My mother is the ambassador." Rianae supplied. "And Shacklebolt, if that's your real name, the fae WILL inform the elves if they get too angry." Shacklebolt sighed and nodded slowly, Rahkesh had given him a quick rundown on all the magical species likely to be central to this battle.

"I'll talk to you later if I find out anything." Rahkesh said, Shacklebolt agreed and closed off the connection.

"Motherfuckers are determined to screw themselves out of existence with all this anti-magical creature bullshit." Ally opinioned. "They've now got the vampires, werewolves, centaurs, fae, and possibly even elves getting involved. Well damn. Maybe I'll buy land in the UK, after the war there'll be no one left and I could wind up owning the country." Rianae and Rahkesh laughed and Rahkesh started seriously considering doing that, she had a point.

Daray purred happily. "Beating the living shit out of the numbskulls will be fun."

"Let me know when, I'll sell tickets." Rahkesh muttered. There should be another way, his subconcious complained, but for the life oh him he couldn't see it. What they really needed was complete integration of all magical life forms, and that would mean first sifting out mortal magic users who were against that. And how could that be done without war? He'd have to find some time to brainstorm that. It was too late to stop the battles, but maybe once everyone tired of fighting giving them another option would end the war.

XXXX

No city every really sleeps, and when the day workers went to bed other lights went on as those who preferred the late hours woke and came out. Down a filthy back alley was a small parking lot, and in the brick wall of an apparently abandoned building was a pair of massive wooden doors. Black iron curled across the front of the doors, images of demons and blood and skulls and ones.

Inside the usual Friday night party was underway. Muggles with unnaturally pale skin, painted faces and dyed hair were moving about. A massive three foot high glass case filled with painted bones served as a bar. There was a dance floor, colorful lights, and a few tables and couches scattered about.

And moving in and out amongst the muggle crowd was a handful of vampires. Examining tonight's menu, searching for a particularly tasty muggle remembered from other nights or some new flavor.

Not all vampiric establishments were in magical areas, and places like this found a better crowd amongst muggles than wizards. Three stories high in a shabby rundown building, each floor with its own dance floor, music, and different sorts of food and drink. It was very well known in certain circles and could expect upwards of three hundred visitors every Friday evening. It was the Bat's Wing, the seedier of two such places owned by a vampire of a bit less than a thousand years named Taiven Vachinto.

He'd started out as one of Lord Hadrian's mortal slaves, back in a time and place when slave owning was much more normal. The vampire had turned him when he was thirty and when Hadrian had started gaining power over the centuries and moving from place to place as he did so Taiven had followed. Finally settling as the Master of London Hadrian had stayed put ever since and Taiven, never one to leave his master's side, hadn't left. His other place was much more upscale with a much wealthier clientele, and was a well disguised building that no one ever looked twice at, which was good because what went on there wasn't exactly proper. Again with three different floors the Raven's Loft had gambling, drinking, drugs, and continuous wild sex parties. That the participants never wanted to be made public. Apart from a good portion of London's social and financial elite it also got visitors from all over the world. And therefore, brought in not only a good deal of money, but also a lot of interesting muggle's with different tasting blood from around the world to feed on.

While the Raven's Loft was occasionally a hunting ground for some vampires, most of the locals preferred the Bat's Wing. Less classy, darker, and fangs were not out of place. Of course, only vampires whose presence was recognized and permitted by the City Master were allowed in, which caused a good deal of friction with the illegals. But the magical vampires who worked for him were a good deal older and much more powerful than the young, muggle vampires that infested the country and after Taiven had ruthlessly executed a dozen and sent a score more on to Lord Hadrian, to be punished for their illegal existence, he hadn't had any trouble.

The new anti-vampire laws were so far only being enforced in magical communities, which was probably one of the Ministry of Magics worst moves. It gave most of the vampires, who lived and worked amongst muggles, time to plan and prepare. Most vampires had voluntarily left the wizards scene, there's wasn't much to do there anyway, and they had gathered all of their vast resource and turned them towards preparing for the fight over the vampiric presence in non-magical areas.

The two vampires working on the roof finally returned to the third story of the building, bags of tools on their shoulders. Taiven's office had very thick walls, so that they couldn't hear the music from just beyond. The two vampires settled down into soft chairs and waited while others finished the last of the enchantments. Soon the team of ten vampires entered the office.

"Finished. Have we found someone to test it yet?" Nurama asked. The tall South African vampire removed the glamour she always wore, revealing a set of claws marks running all the way across her face and neck from left to right and disappearing under her sweater. A gift from a lion back when she had still been mortal. The pink and white scars stood out against her dark skin, and were far too memorable to allow many to see. She had been working for Taiven as head of security at both of his properties for two hundred years, and had been responsible for the horrific killings that had finally chased away the illegal muggle vampires.

"No, but I expect we can count of the aurors to show up fairly soon. I might even invite them, the wait is boring me." Taiven replied, scratching the Hell Hound lying at his feet behind the ears. They had just finished the installation of twenty lasers on the outside of the building and surrounding area. There were wards around the Bat's Wing, so that every mortal magic user that entered the area was "tagged" with a bit of magic, that didn't leave until they were out of range. Because the wards were in the ground and not the air they were unlikely to be sensed by the frighteningly oblivious Ministry. The lasers would catch the magical signal and when activated would only fire at those with tags.

"As soon as the wards tell us they're coming we can send the Hounds down to their cages." Nurama said, reaching down to pet another of the ten massive canines. Dark red and black in color with a layer of metallic looking thick guard hairs that stiffened and sharpened and widened into armor when threatened. The two alpha beasts, a male and female, had been a gift from Lord Hadrain fifty years previous, the others were their offspring. Their massive claws were more cat-like than canine and there skin and armor could get hot enough to melt iron. Their bite was stronger than a hyenas and their saliva was a deadly acidic poison. Standing four feet high and six feet long hey were fearsome predators, and were very difficult to fight, having magics of their own.

There were ten invisible doors in the walls of the Bat's Wing, each with a large cage behind it; the Hell Hounds could be unleashed to guard the building at any moment. They carried illusions, worked in bloodmagic, so that to a muggle they looked like a cross between a Great Dane and a Doberman.

"I have completed the obliviation wards." Said another vampire, appearing in the room from thin air, by use of thread magic. A short slim creature originally born in the Aleutians he was a thread magic specialist who had been tying wards into the whole block to obliviate muggles should they see anything. He was one of the best warders alive and the wards he had built would remove only memories of magic and magical creatures. Leaving a memory of a fight between rival gangs that had interrupted a night of partying. It usually cost an arm and a leg to get him, his skills were in high demand, but he owed Taiven a favor, the older vampire having saved his life some centuries back.

XXXX

Ministry building were supposedly secure. Supposedly. And security is always a relative term. There were two werewolves hidden in the hall where the meeting of the Ministry's top officials and all the members of the Wizengamot were meeting.

We need to respond quickly and with all our power." The Minister of Magic said. "We can't let them think we're weak now." Everyone nodded in agreement. The vampires had to be shown that abducting a Ministry employee had extreme consequences.

"We've been merciful with them, they ought to be grateful, now they go and abduct Umbridge." Percy Weasely said, "we should attack a soon as possible."

"Tonight." The Minister decided. Everyone nodded and agreed loudly. "We must strike at the vampires and all their allies in the world of the dark beings. The werewolves, the fae, the centaurs and the others. The half-breeds that work against us must understand that we are not going to roll over and allow them to rule the world. We are their superiors and they must remember this."

Across the room Amelia Bones, newly removed from her position, sat with a handful of others who had the day before attempted a movement to remove the anti-vampire laws. Now under auror guard, and about to be sent to Azkaban without trial – since after all they had apparently committed treason by trying to repeal a law – and since when was that treason? The Minister had a sort of absolute power that had gone much further than Madam Bones and her coworkers had thought, their arrest wouldn't make the paper for three weeks. By then confessions could be tortured out of them.

But she had something they didn't know about. On the gold bracelet she wore was one link unlike the others, this was a one time one way signal. And now she bit a fingernail until it bled and pressed the blood to the enchanted link. A magical signal flew from the room, and a tiny crystal among a row of tiny crystals on Alastor Moody's desk began to glow.

The signal was only meant to be sent when the Ministry became too corrupted to turn, when they started breaking their own laws. Amelia pressed the link again and the crystal began to flash. Moody sighed wearily, their last power in the Ministry had been arrested. He would have to arrange to discover where she was being held and break her out soon.

"Rufus would raise all sorts of hell if he could see this." Moody muttered, pity that one hadn't lasted. Alive but comatose and supposedly mindless. Rahkesh wouldn't like this news, they had both had a little hope of changing things. Now there was nothing left but to fight it out.

The vote was taken, and as usual there were only two or three nays, and their names were being illegally recorded by monitoring devices, they would find themselves removed to cells in Azkaban, for no stated reason, later. Eventually to be accused of any crime that could be fabricated, and given maximum punishments.

Once all the mortal humans had left the werewolves slipped out through the wards, unnoticed. They may have been the best spies the pack alphas could send, but even they had their limits. Elara and Sabien Ateres were masters at getting into places they should be at. Now they had sighted their target and the two vampires left the room, using illusions to make it seem as though the door never opened, and spells to stop the air from moving as they passed. They tracked their prey down the hallway undetected, and then dodged ahead to arrange the abduction.

However even the famed Ateres assassins weren't the best at this game of hide and seek. Werewolves, vampires, and the humans had all failed to note the three elves that now traded and looks, and decided they had the information they needed. The three elves vanished in absolute silence, not even disturbing the dust on the floor as they slipped out of existence.

Percy Weasely hurried back to his office, bustling through the busy Ministry hallways, his robes and authoritative walk guaranteed that people moved out of his way to let him pass. With Umbridge gone he'd been promoted and with it came a pay raise and new respect from everyone. It was very nice to finally have he respect he deserved, he'd worked hard for this.

A guard standing between two elevators nodded once to Percy as he stepped onto the elevator, Percy didn't nod back, he was the guard's superior and didn't need to take any notice of those performing less important tasks. He was only a guard, not an auror, and therefore Percy had no need to act friendly.

At the top the elevator opened, but no one got out. After a moment the guard on the second floor looked inside, only to find the elevator empty. He wondered briefly if the guard below, a cousin, was playing games with him, sending up an empty elevator. Then he shrugged it off and nodded politely to two witches who got on and started down.

Percy Weasely's absence wasn't noted until the following day. The uproar when it was finally figured out that he'd vanished inside the Ministry hallways undetected by the monitoring devices, guards, or other employees, was considerable.

The Minister added a new piece to the anti-magical creature slaws. And his personal aurors began working to draw up a plan to seek out the fae residences, and serve them warnings that their kind was no longer welcome in the UK.

In the Weasely household Mrs. Weasely wept, Percy had not been close to the family at all the past few years, but he was her son. Ronald Weasely raged about how he'd become the best vampire slayer in the world and show them all who was best and what happened to those who didn't respect magic folk. Ginny Weasely shrugged it off without much worry or pity, and continued writing her letter to Luna planning their trip to Salem Academy. Mr. Weasely went about his usual business, a little grim, but unsurprised. He also sent a letter to one Mad Eye Moody, requesting what was known about his son's whereabouts, his health, and what would happen to him. He knew better than to ask when Percy would be returned.

XXXX

The head auror cast a minor obliviation spell on the muggle that had seen them apparate in, thirty people appearing from empty air. His team spread out and moved down the block, checking the air for wards and keeping an eye out for wandering muggles.

From behind a set of plain, completely ordinary blinds one of the vampire sentries caught site of them, and pulled out a muggle cell phone. The magic users never thought to monitor radios and phones, never imagining that the vampires had completely circumvented the magical security by turning to muggle technology. The mortals were so oblivious. And the vampires had the magical codes to hack into the magic of the aurors communicators, thanks to an inside source. He didn't know who that source was, but Kylara, Lord Hadrian's premiere spy, had brought them in. That source happened to be one Nymphadora Tonks, having finally decided to act against the Ministry. Being a metamorphmagus had a lot of uses; colorful hair was the least of it. And so she was better set to give information than Shacklebolt, or any of the other aurors, many of whom were already being spied upon by the Minister's personal guards, who acted like his own little army.

The aurors quickly identified their target building by its extra-shabby exterior. They couldn't know that it was in fact in perfect condition. Those layers of decaying wood, rusty nails, scorch marks, trash, and chipped paint had been added on to the outside to make it appear decrepit. In fact it was one of the best structure in the city, being earthquake proof and being capable of being completely sealed off from the outside, airtight, to protect against any attempts to poison anyone inside. It was also built of ironwood and steel, a tough combination.

Inside the Bat's Wing vampires looked up from pursuing their chosen prey for the night, feeling a telepathic ripple. Aurors were coming. Slowly vampires drifted towards the outside of the crowd, coordinating with tiny telepathic touches and wrapping their magics around the room, ready for the attack.

"Did you send out an invitation?" Nurama asked.

"I let the location slip yesterday." Taiven admitted. He gave an evil grin to his team of guards, "I thought it might be time to show them exactly why all mortal attempts to exterminate us haven't worked." His toothy grin was matched by the rest of the room as his vampires rose and left.

The aurors swarmed up to the massive doors. The head auror waited until his team reported that they were in position around the building, waiting for anyone to try to escape.

"Squad six in position" came a whisper from his bracelet.

"It's always polite to knock." The leader said, the five in front of the door raised their wands and fired blasting curses. Five bolts of red light sped towards the black iron and wood doors, and harmlessly shimmered out of existence when they hit. Leaving the aurors staring, dumbstruck, they had been practicing for a week to maximize the impact of those spells.

Then the lasers were activated. Quick precise beams shot out, each aimed for the center of its target. The leader of the auror attack force was the first to fall. Screaming as the laser slid through his back and into his spine.

Inside silencing spells caught all noise from outside and removed it. The muggles partied on, unaware.

Ripping curses and massive fireballs flew at the shabby wooden building, only to be absorbed. Lasers locked onto their tagged targets and fired. Of the six squads three were annihilated in seconds, their spines severed.

Nurama picked out the aurors at the door, and turned those lasers off. Her team needed a little fun after all. But it would be a one sided battle.

Light flared as the five aurors in front tried to aparrate, and found wards springing into existence, they were trapped.

"Incedio, incarcerous!" One of the aurors spotted the attacking shadows and fought back. He was silenced immediately by a knife that seemed to suddenly grow out of his throat. His comrades stared in shock as the big blade hurled with vampiric strength went all the way through his neck and blood poured down his front. He crumpled to the ground.

Now the vampires were closer, lashing out telepathically. The aurors were an experienced team and their shock vanished fast, mental walls shot up to repel the vampires. But the vampires had two master Legilimens and these withdrew from the fight to concentrate on the mind of the mortals, causing severe headaches and disorientation.

Blood burning curses flew from twenty wands as the vampires attacked. They were followed up by sprays of acid. The four remaining aurors rallied and did an impressive job of managing the curses, but they hadn't anticipated potions being added to the fight, it was a mix witches and wizards never thought of. And their agonized screams as their flesh melted alerted the remaining aurors around the building to the fall of their lead squadron.

At the back door squad two watched one of their comrades die with a laser to her guts. The head of the squadron heard the screams from out front go silent, and saw the smoking remains of squad three. "Surrender!" he yelled to his remaining aurors, throwing his wand and knife down. The other two stared then had the sense to drop their weapons and drop to the ground. Having incapacitated the ones at the front vampires swarmed around the building, and the three who had surrendered were spotted at once and lasers turned off before they could kill them. The injured one, a hole burned into her and through to her spine, was beyond any help, and one of the vampires swooped down to kill her, swiftly drinking away her blood and her life. The other three had a moment to gape in horror before fangs found their throats. Once they succumbed to the vampiric telepathic powers while feeding they were carried off to a holding cell in the basement.

"Commander? Report! What's happening?" Nurama smiled and bent to retrieve the dropped communicator.

"Who is this?" She asked her best delicate-female voice.

"What? Who is this! Who are you?"

"My name will have no importance to you. I hope you weren't too attached to your minions, you won't be seeing them again." Nurama snapped the delicate device in her hand, crushing it. Magic flared, and then died as she wrapped her magic around it and blew away the spells on it.

"Spread out, find the rest and bring them in, turn off the lasers." Nurama snapped out. The lasers ceased seconds later and her vampires ran past into the shadows.

Two aurors tried to run for it into the muggle city. Vampire leaped after them, creating shields and allowing the spells fired back at them to slide off the shields and fade away, rather than allowing them o fully impact the shields. The aurors fell with vampires tackling them from behind, wands snapped and the aurors went limp as the vampires fed.

It took all of ten minutes to complete. For the vampires it was a victory, and a disappointment, they had hoped for a better fight. But the aurors had divided into too small groups, and with the lasers removing so many instantly there weren't enough left to rally and put up a fight. Of the thirty aurors sent to attack the Bat's Wing twenty-one died, eighteen of them from the lasers. The others were disarmed, searched, chained, and dumped into the holding cell. Tiaven sent out a signal to Andrew Farov. Farov had been waiting, pacing his office while Taiven's vampires fought – Taiven wanted to do this himself, and he sent back a message immediately that he would drop by to pick up the captives. Then he contacted Lord Hadrian.

The mortals had attacked, unprovoked, first. Now the vampires were fully justified in retaliating. The mortals had no proof vampires had taken Umbridge, and therefore no legal grounds, by their own laws, to attack. In his office Lord Hadrian, his captain of the guard, and his first spy Kylara – younger half-sister to Cyala Ateres, all grinned as the communication mirror went blank. Kylara called out to her sister telepathically, and Ambrosius went to alert their warriors. They'd take the auror training quarters the next day. Along with all of the trainees. A little education into vampiric reality would be just the thing.

"Tell Cyala I want the Unspeakables, all of them, by next Saturday." Hadrian said, "we'll take the Wizengamot later, let them make more mistakes first." Kylara grinned and sent out the message to Cyala Ateres.

XXXX

"Rahkesh? Wake up!" Someone was shaking his shoulder. Rahkesh rolled upright, froze, then slowly put the knife and taser he had grabbed back under his pillow, it was only Daray, appearing out of nowhere.

"It's four a.m."

"Get up, come on, we've got a problem." The vampire said, ignoring him and walking out the door. Rahkesh frowned, wondering what on earth was going on, and summoned his clothes.

Rahkesh followed Daray down to the lounge on their floor; the room was filled with students. What had happened? Everyone was awake and looking just as confused as he was.

There were no fae present. Rahkesh realized suddenly. Not one. Caroline finally arrived with a few last vampires, the two alpha werewolves, her pet veela, and the two mortals who were the top of the human students. She closed the door behind her, and then waved for everyone to be silent.

"Alright, we'll make this quick. A two a.m. all of the fae students left Akren. The students standing guard (the older students took turns) followed them out of the valley, where they teleported back to their respective homelands." Murmurs sprung up around the room. Caroline waved a hand for silence.

"Now we don't know all the details but Justin told me, before he left, that they had been called home for a vote. They fae are considering war with the human magic users."

Everyone started talking at once, Rahkesh rubbed his hands over his eyes, okay, he was awake now.

Everyone was talking loudly, but there didn't seem to be any new information coming in, just speculation. Akren had a lively rumor mill, but most students didn't take it seriously. They knew that one needed facts not random thought, and some were already leaving. If anything else came in everyone would end up hearing about it, because this affected all of them and for something like this even the vampires and werewolves, normally hostile, would pass on information. Rahkesh realized he needed to contact Moody and Shacklebolt, so he slipped out of the room silently and returned to his own. Shacklebolt was keeping an extra communications sheet at his house, and he could contact Moody.

"The fae are seriously considering war with humans. Voldemort killed a bunch of them attempting to create a new type of inferi. There's a possibility he was also behind a kidnapping attempt some of his vampires made. That was a little after midwinter. I understand the vampires involved have been executed but it was a horrid mess for a while and the fae are still really angry." Rahkesh continued.

"What are we going to do about that?' Moody asked curiously. Rahkesh shrugged. He didn't know, but there had to be something they could do.

The problem, Rahkesh realized, was partly communication. If they could get the fae, vampires, werewolves, and others talking those species would likely form an alliance against Voldemort and whatever allies he had. The vampires wouldn't announce their existence to the muggles for several years yet, so they didn't need to worry about that.

The problem with getting them to communicate was that they didn't live in the same places, and they each thought that they were better than everyone else. Simple equality and mixing of the species would create a force capable of combating Voldemort, and winning.

"Get them talking, make sure everyone knows that the issue is bigger than their species. The vampires already don't want Voldemort, only the youngest, who are due to be killed off anyway. The fae should be mad at Voldemort, not all mortals, they need to know that. And the distinctions between anti-magical creature countries and those that don't care what your species is."

"Kill Voldemort, force those who despise all magical beings to back down. Voldemort first?" Moody suggested.

"He's pushing this anti-magical being movement along, it causes chaos that he can benefit from. If everyone hates vampire they might side with him against a common enemy, and vampires do have very different norms than mortal magic users on things like murder. Without Voldemort the problem is much simpler and less complex." Shacklebolt said.

"Start by proposing an alliance between vampires, fae, and werewolves, plus the countries that recognize that all magical being shave a right to exist." Rahkesh said.

"How would we contact the fae?" Shacklebolt asked. Rahkesh looked to Moody.

"I'll get in touch with the local alumni", he agreed.

"And I'll start here through my friends and the current students. Though no one knows when the fae will be back." Rahkesh said. "Maybe getting word in now will give them a third voting option between war, no war, and a selective war."

XXXX

"If they fae all exist in separate clans then how do they get a central vote?" Rahkesh asked.

"Each clan votes then send their vote to the fae elders, who are currently at the meeting house, which is the only central governmental building the fae have. They count the votes from the clans." Daray said. "Rianae said her mother sent out those messages you gave her, her mother thinks it's a good idea."

"I just hope the fae are listening, they might be to busy to care about a message and not even read it."

"Rianae's mother has been the ambassador for four hundred years, and that's because the fae trust her and like her. They'll listen." Daray assured him. The vampire froze in midstep and Rahkesh nearly crashed into him.

"What?" He asked. The other vampire students had paused as well. They were crossing the main entrance hall, on their way to lunch after finishing bloodmagic class.

"Vampires, several of them. Old ones." Daray said shortly, closing his eyes to search out their presences. His eyes snapped open again and he and every other vampire around moved quickly out of the center of the hallway as the massive doors opened. Rahkesh followed Daray to the side and watched.

He picked out Namach immediately, the ancient was leading a group of four vampires, and Rahkesh recognized Cyala Ateres, but the he didn't know the other two. Definitely very old. He carefully extended his mind a little bit, and immediately picked up from their auras that they were the Master of Moscow and the Master of Cairo.

The four vampires vanished up the stairs towards Namach's rooms, leaving the hall buzzing with talk and telepathic activity.

"Did your grandmother tell you she was coming by?"

"No. I wonder what they're up to." Daray said, Rahkesh waited while Daray reached out mentally to his grandmother, his eyes glazing over as his mind connected to the much more powerful ancient's.

"What are they doing?" Silas asked, coming up beside them.

"Organizing an alumni meeting." Daray said, awakening abruptly and shaking his head ot clear it. "Alumni of all species."

"Has that _ever _happened?" Rahkesh asked.

"No." Rahkesh turned to see Caroline not far away. "Never." The alpha vampire was studying the retreating forms carefully. And Rahkesh realized that she was contacting them telepathically. "Current students will be invited." Caroline said finally.

"Your grandmother isn't an alumnus." Rahkesh suddenly remembered.

"Neither is the Master of Moscow. This is more than just an alumni gathering." Daray said, scowling, "they're not telling us what it really is."

"Oh joy, more to worry about." Rahkesh muttered, "I'm going to go eat." Namach and Cyala could plan whatever they wanted, he trusted those two. And in order to have non-alumni in the Akren mountains the headmistress would have had to been prewarned so she could approve their presence.

"Be careful." Daray said suddenly, "my grandmother said you attracted a lot of attention with whatever happened during that duel with Voldemort's minions - and the City Masters want to meet you." Rahkesh looked about for a convenient window to jump out of, and then wondered if perhaps this could be useful. "Grandmother also said if you ever want to become a vampire you're welcome to join our family." _That _made Rahkesh stop and stare. Ancients of Cyala Ateres age _never _created new vampires. To get an offer like that from one of the most powerful vampires in existence…would be _very _helpful when turning down similar offers from other vampires. Rahkesh made a mental note to thank Cyala next time he was her. The ancient matriarch and figured out that with Rahkesh's powers become much more open and widely known he'd have a lot of offers from vampires wanting to turn him, and she'd given him a way to decline without insulting anyone.

Late that evening Rahkesh was studying when a bit of vampiric telepathy slipped into his mind. Rahkesh checked his mental wards and then reached out, receiving a summons from Namach. Wondering what the ancient wanted he put aside his transfiguration work and headed for Namach's rooms.

As he stepped out into the Akren entrance hall a thick weight of vampiric magic hit Rahkesh across the neck, freezing him in place. He almost lashed out, before he caught a claming signal from Namach. Curious now Rahkesh waited, moments later the Master of Cairo descended the stairs and headed towards the door. He passed and Rahkesh moved to step forward, only to have Namach's power hold him in place again, immobilizing him. The City Master swept out the front door and they closed with a dull thud behind him. The magics vanished from the air around him and Rahkesh cautiously moved across the hall and up the stairs.

Cyala and Namach were both in his rooms when Rahkesh got there. Papers were strewn across the table in the sitting room and a chalk board had been conjured against one drapery covered wall, the writing in a language Rahkesh did not know.

"Evening Eli." Rahkesh muttered, leaning against the doorframe as the massive frilled lizard blocked his path. "Care to call off the guard dog?" The huge reptile hissed furiously and lashed his tail about, frill expanding.

"Stop that Eli, he's human, he doesn't bite." Namach sighed glaring at the perpetually irritated lizard.

"My animagus might snack on him though." Rahkesh said, leering at Eli. Eli mock charged, stopping only a foot away from Rahkesh, who didn't flinch. They stared at each other, Eli's tongue flickering in and out. "You silly beast." Rahkesh said finally, and stepped boldly past Eli and into the room. Eli hissed, enraged, and leaped onto the couch, Rahkesh changed direction and settled for a chair. "Why am I such a threat?"

"No idea." Namach said, "he only really likes vampires. Everyone else makes him angry."

"A racist lizard." Rahkesh said, Eli hissed and rattled his frill, before calming and tucking it back in. Rahkesh turned to the ancient vampire, "why didn't you want the Master of Cairo to see me?"

"I suppose Daray told you about the Ateres offer to turn you?" Cyala asked.

"Yes. I'm flattered, but I like being human. I have no intention of ever changing species." Rahkesh said, the tow vampires looked at him curiously, then shrugged as if it was just one of those weird and incomprehensible things mortals did. Rahkesh didn't explain further.

"Well you have already attracted a lot of attention from some very powerful individuals. Apart from the fae elders most of the City Masters are now aware that there is a very powerful human out there who appeared during a battle between the Ministry and the vampires, and is currently attending Akren. All Akren alumni have access to the school's records and it won't be long before everyone knows how fast you moved up in your bloodmagic classes. Or that you survived an Amadan's curse unharmed. You're going to start getting offers from some very powerful vampires and werewolves who want to turn you." Cyala said.

"I know. I'll explain that I intend to remain mortal as many times as I have to." Rahkesh said.

"You can always use the excuse that if you become a vampire you'll join the Ateres family, which should deter a lot of vampires and werewolves. Why would you choose any of them when you could join the Ateres? But it won't stop all of them." Namach said.

"We still don't know what effect my blood would have on either species. Perhaps next time a classmates attacks me I'll let them get a little of my blood, just to test it out." Rahkesh said, he was fairly sure said individual would be in a world of pain.

"You might want to get a portkey to the valley entrance." Cyala said, "you might just kill them."

"Which could be a very useful ability." Rahkesh mused. The two vampires grinned approvingly. "What's happening in London?"

"I just got a message from my half-sister, she's working with Lord Hadrian. The Ministry just attacked a vampire-owned nightclub, completely without provocation. We're retaliating by taking all of the trainee aurors tomorrow, and the Unspeakables will all be picked up by next Saturday." The ancient matriarch said. "Then we'll just wait and see."

"Fun. You realize the Unspeakables might just put up a fight." Rahkesh warned.

"Oh I hope they do." Cyala said with a ferocious grin.

"I'm concerned about the lengths the anti-magical crature countries may go to to prove themselves right and to win. For them this isn't a war about equality or freedom or any such thing. This is about pride, who's right and who isn't. Who's superior to whom. When they get desperate we could see some real problems, though I can't really think of what, but it worries me." Rahkesh said.

"Andrew Farov said that his contact, Alastor Moody, said something similar." Namach said."He's worried how far they'll go to aovid loosing. They can't imagine defeat or a truce, and they won't be able to handle a loss. He also said they are far to prideful and can't even think of ever being wrong about anything. Their selfrighteousness is one of the reasons for this war, and will be the end of any truce. They seem to have the idea of dark and light, good and evil, so ingrained that not only can they not see shades of grey, but they won't be able to see themselves going against their own ideals either."

"Very true I'm afraid." Rahkesh said sadly.

"Which is why we're waiting to reveal our existence to the muggles for just the right moment." Namach explained. He then turned aside and picked up a large thin rectangular box from beside his chair.

"Mariah sent this. She found it in some dusty archeological archive somewhere. She said it belonged to you." Namach said, handing the box over. Rahkesh blinked in surprise, and opened it, wondering what could possibly have turned up in an old archive that belonged to him.

Rahkesh pulled the old rags off whatever it was, and nearly fainted. It was a painting, of him, Silas, Daray, Xeri, Nic, Sharahak, and Enireth. It had been painted by Xeri's sister Vey, two days before the three had left the Chachapoyaro. Rahkesh, Nic and Sygra were standing in front of Enireth, the dragon's head above them, while Silas sat on one of the dragon's claws. Nuri was lying at Silas feet, eyeing Satan as the bat hung from Daray's wing. Daray and Sharahak were in demon form, Sharahak lying on the ground and Daray settle don Enireth's other set of claws, massive black wings arching behind him. Xeri was sitting beside Sharahak.

"How did she get this?" Rahkesh wondered aloud, turning the painting so the two ancient's could see.

"You left this behind?" Cyala asked.

"Yes." Rahkesh said softly, wondering how the painting had gotten from the city to whatever archive Mariah had found it in.

"Mariah was looking for evidence of that dragon. She was going through an old collection of paintings owned by a dragon enthusiast who passed away a century ago. His home was sealed by curse wards that only recently got removed. His descendents wanted the archive paintings cleaned out." Namach explained.

"Well, here's her proof." Rahkesh said.

"Yes it is. She hasn't released the discovery to anyone else yet. But when she does it will probably spark another search of South America for dragon remains. And a lot of dragon textbooks will have to be rewritten."

"She can say she found a painting, does she actually need to show this?" Rahkesh asked. Suddenly realizing that he was in the painting, and that was more unneeded attention, powerful, bloodmagic adept, and time traveler. Oh he didn't need _that_!

"The painting is the only proof, she'll need to show it." Namach confirmed. "Perhaps you should keep this and wait."

"For a few years." Rahkesh agreed. "Damn it. Now that I think of it there were four other paintings Vey did."

"Hopefully they're all forgotten somewhere and no one will find them anytime soon." Cyala said.

"Hopefully they're still with whatever remains of the Chachapoyaro, or long gone along with them." Rahkesh said. He had hoped to search out that unusual group of people, to see what had become of them, but he just hadn't found the time. Someday. And if he was lucky this was the only one of those painting that had made it to the outside world.

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Please review!


	33. Chapter 33

-Starlight Chibi-chan – you are getting fae and elves confused, different species. However we're not at that point yet so I haven't made the differences clear, give it time, there's a very long way to go with this fic (like several sequels of equal length).

-Kiki – Dumbledore/fawkes? Ew, just ew.

-Binnybobarino – that is correct, read the chapter, I put that detail in for a reason.

-Demonman21 – I will explain all about where they came from. There are blackmarkets for every illegal thing.

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A lot of people asked why Rahkesh doesn't want to be a vampire. Read the chapter and the note at the bottom. You'll have an answer.

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Chapter 33

Rahkesh flung himself to the ground, landing hard enough to knock the air out of him, and spun aside as massive sharp hooves pulverized the earth where he'd by lying. He rolled away and leaped to his feet, drawing a breath carefully to see if he'd broken anything. No sharp pains greeted him and he fired off several ice spells in quick succession.

Ribbons of ice materialized about the charging centaur, and were smashed by those powerful hooves and kicked aside. Rahkesh brought up a fireball and hurled it. The centaur swung his fist about and punched the fireball, sending it flinging back across the spaced between them. Rahkesh called his magic to him and absorbed it back into himself. The pain of the fireball forming back into regular magic and falling into place within him made him dizzy, but it passed quickly and Rahkesh leaped in time to avoid an arrow.

Reabsorbing deflected spells was a recent trick; the vampires already knew it so he and Ally had spent some time learning it themselves. They didn't want to give their vampire friends any reason to feel too superior after all.

A sword swung at his head, Rahkesh ducked and sent out tripping and bone splintering hexes. The centaur's hooves glowed as he casually kicked them aside. The spells hit the rocks to the trial side and shattered them. Rahkesh hit him now with a wandless spell, having used a wand previously, a bloody gash opened under one arm, cutting deep into the muscle and hopefully making movement difficult. Nets abruptly appeared around Rahkesh's feet, followed by a noose about his neck, he burned both, turning them to ash while protecting himself. He jumped back and turned to avoid a curse that would have removed a limb, it was followed in seconds by a flurry of tendon snapping curses, a blinding spell and a vomiting hex. Rahkesh threw up a massive shield and deflected most, the vomiting hex got through and he wandlessly summoned a rock in front of him to block it. The deflected spells scorched the ground and blasted pits about his feet. Rahkesh moved to firmer ground.

He saw another arrow coming, and then another, he dodged both, feeling the feather of the second brush his side. Too close. He already had one lodged in the muscle of his right shoulder and another in his right calf, both had entered sideways so the damage was minimal. But both had carried potions to slow him and enchantments to weaken him and bloodmagic enchantments to give the centaur telepathic warning of his plans, despite Rahkesh's mental shields. So far his bloodmagic had fought off the poisons, but one more arrow would probably end the fight. Rahkesh drew and knife and bent his knees, placing his feet and crouching just a little bit. He did a quick check, and shifted to rest his weight on the balls of his feet, ready to spring in any direction.

The centaur twisted left then charged, this centaur knew how to fight a human on foot, his didn't rear high enough to make his underside vulnerable, but his hooves lashed out a perfect height nonetheless. Rahkesh went to his knees and rose again as he ducked under one lashing hoof and dropped back to the centaur's flank, dropped sideways and out of striking angle to the back legs, and lashed out, dragged the knife deep across the hamstring.

He whirled around and moved back as the centaur's leg gave out and his back end dropped low, Rahkesh used his distance to get up some speed in his run and leaped, coming in from an angle, landing heavily on the centaurs back. His weight threw the centaur to the side and, already on only three legs; he overbalanced and went down sideways.

Rahkesh jumped up and caught onto a ledge overhanging the side of the trail, the sharp rocks bit into his hands and he silently praised the creator of fingerless gloves. He swung and dropped, arching in mid air to bring his weight into position, and landed across the centaur's neck as he struggled to rise. Driving his knee into the centaur's throat and sliding the knife blade under the centaur's head and twisting, so that his head was held nearly 180 degrees backwards, with the knife pressed deep so that if he turned at all it would slice into him. Rahkesh made sure to slip one knee back behind one of the front horse legs, so the centaur couldn't move it properly, then caught one arm in his left while the centaur was still choking, and shoved the arm back behind him, and leaned forward, resting his wait on the pinned arm, pressing it down at an unnatural angle.

He thought he'd won, but then magic gripped his entire body and sent him spinning into the air. Everything blurred as he spun and Rahkesh realized he was flying off the mountain. Rahkesh reached out and tried to take control of the spell, beginning to replace the magics with his own. He stopped his fall and rolled over in the air, and landed upright. A magical blow to his side hit him as soon as his toes touched the ground and Rahkesh felt several ribs give out and snap. He collapsed, landing on the other side, formed shields, calling on his bloodmagic to heal him. Then he raised a hand and made a pinching motion at the centaur's eyes, sealing both shut.

The centaur screamed and ripped the wandless magic away, but while he was blinded Rahkesh got off a succession of summoning and banishing spells. He aimed at various bones, not having time for the precision necessary for a brain or heart strike.

A loud crack of breaking bone told Rahkesh that one of his spells had worked, but the centaur blocked the others, letting them slide around him and rearrange the rocks behind him. Despite the broken arm he leaped forward again. Rahkesh felt his ribs firming up and got to his feet in time to dodge thrashing hooves. A fist came down at him. He blocked, grabbed the arm, and slit the wrist with a knife. Spinning aside to avoid a cruciatus curse and jabbed a taser against the centaur's side. The leaped away.

The jolt of electricity was washed away by defensive bloodmagics and a flying hoof caught the back of Rahkesh's head. He toppled forward and rolled, the world spun and his vision went black, then he was on his feet, moving on instinct. But the centaur had moved faster and Rahkesh froze as he felt the tip of a sword settle against one of his eyes. Rahkesh, breathed out and remained still, lowering the knife he held. Damn it.

The worst part of all of this was that he couldn't transform and attack. Neither serpent nor thunderbird would aid him here. He had learned from the school alumni records that this centaur, Viare, held what was commonly known as elemental powers. Usually abilities reserved for elves alone, though occasionally other magical creatures were born with them. This one had enough ability, though low level, that he could probably redirect lightning to hit the ground beside him, and blur the air enough to stall a basilisk's gaze. Attacking him and trying to bite him in either form was unwise, enchanted arrows were difficult to dodge when you were as large as Rahkesh's animagus forms were. While there was a dim possibility of getting lightning or killing gaze past him attempting it would reveal his animagus forms, and those were his back up weapons for more important situations. Surprise was too valuable to give up in a sparring match.

There was a long pause, and then someone blew a whistle. Rahkesh hesitated, and then moved away. The centaur limped around beside him and bent to pick up his dropped bow and arrows.

The injured leg glowed as it healed over, bloodmagic sparking over the centaur's skin. Rahkesh raise done eyebrow, curious. Viare, commander of the guardians of his herd, had some expansive and elaborate bloodmagics.

The Akren Mountains were home to two massive herds of centaurs. Their ranges were at the other end of the mountains from Akren and the distance between was covered by a handful of winding trails that ran up through the mountains. It was cold and snowy at the higher points, even in midsummer. Shortly after passing the entrance to Akren the trail nearest to them wound upwards several thousand more feet, and it mostly ice and snow from there to near the centaur's homes. As a result the centaurs didn't come by very often. But every few years a patrol made it way to Akren, to exchange news and catch up on what was going on in the outside world. They had little contact with anyone but other centaur herds. The larger of the two local herds was the herd of the centaur council, given a place in the mountains by the founder of Akren, making the Akren Mountains key to the centaurs and making them allies of the school.

"Nicely fought little one." Viare said, turning on the tiny trail beside him by moving along the rocky cliff like a mountain goat. Rahkesh said nothing about that; he was about two feet shorter than this centaur and he thought Viare had been going very easy – the centaurs had a tournament with the older students and some teachers soon, so Viare would be conserving his strength for that and hiding his abilities from those who hadn't seen him fight before. Viare shook his mane out, scattering a few blood droplets. His bruises were already gone. Including the knife wound in his side from earlier in the fight. He had some _very_ good healing bloodmagics. Rahkesh could still feel blood seeping slowly from his own injuries. The pain from his ribs, dulled by bloodmagic and adrenaline, came back strong and he let out a breath and began breathing very carefully. He could use his bloodmagic, but Marluck had odd rules about when they were allowed to use healing spells on themselves, he'd have to wait a few minutes.

"You to, having six limbs makes a difference doesn't it?" Rahkesh asked. Viare, and professor Marluck who had been watching, laughed. Strange to be acting friendly so quickly, when if he had made a wrong move and died they would not have done anything more than shrug and bury his body in the mountain and gone back to the school to report his death.

This fight had been outside the valley, as more and more of their combat classes were now that they were past the basics. This meant that killing your opponent did not have the problems it would have in the school. And his classmates were getting more vicious as a result. Rahkesh had been startled by the change. But Daray had explained that many students were very scared of killing someone accidentally, the wards were indifferent to whether it was intentional or not. As a result they held back a bit in the school. Except for the oldest who had their abilities in hand enough that accidentally killing someone was much less likely. In retrospect he shouldn't have been at all surprised, but Rahkesh often got out of the nastier parts of Akren life; he was too much of an unknown and had early on made a few "statements" that were painful enough to make anyone think twice. An early encounter with a werewolf who got too pushy had sent the werewolf to a muggle surgeon with his testicles melted. And couple of vampires trying to get into his rooms had wound up with the walls melted from electricity and the vampires fangs burned off by acids. That had bought him a lot of respect and distance, that and Rahkesh did his best to be polite and avoid confrontation or accidental insult, he had no problem moving aside in a tight hallway to let an older student pass. As a result he didn't get a lot of trouble from others.

Rahkesh had become much more cautious outside the valley since the class had changed location. Partly because his changing blood had caught an awful lot of attention and interest, especially these last few weeks. Apparently his scent had finally changed to reflect the full alterations he had undergone recently. The werewolves and vampires had noticed, and the goblin student had asked if he could recommend a pet shop for snakes, since he smelled like he owned a lot of them. That would be his Basilisk form the goblin had smelled, and Rahkesh was using scent concealing potions now.

He had never been attacked out in the mountains, but he only ever went to the Yek caves to gather fur to sell, or to the trail head near Regina to get home. And he often took one of the portkeys that were kept at the valley entrance and at the trailhead. And of course not many were likely to be wandering out in the mountains in winter. There were other students who went to parties outside the valley, and Rahkesh never went around in the valley itself alone. He'd been warned by an older mortal that many new students went to the hot springs alone and found themselves facing the older vampire students, or werewolves interested in pushing them into turning, or just older students who had no qualms about preying on the younger ones.

"Rahkesh that trail heads back to the school, I want you to run the whole way, and have all your injuries healed by the time you arrive." Marluck said. "You have one hour to get back there starting now." He clicked a timer and dropped it into the bag he carried. It vanished. The bag was connected to one another teacher at the school entrance had. Rahkesh nodded and took off, pacing himself and pulling out his wand beginning healing spells. Seeing the trail crisscrossing the hillside in a few switchbacks he jumped down several layers to gain time. He didn't know what would happen of he didn't get back in under one hour, but it probably wouldn't be pleasant. Punishments at Akren were far harsher than at Hogwarts, though Rahkesh hadn't actually managed to make any serious mistakes yet.

He arrived at the school entrance with ten minutes to spare. One of the students from the healing class gave him a quick check to make sure he had healed everything, and the other professor Marluck checked his time and waved him away.

Immediately inside the massive front doors Rahkesh had to stop fast to avoid two groups of snarling werewolves. By the books and paper on the floor he could guess that member of one group had bumped into the other, and they were blocking the hallway he needed. A few other students were watching cautiously from the upper levels and doorways, no one really wanted to get into the middle of a werewolf brawl. Unfortunately there was no way around them. Rahkesh settled down on a tiny staircase that moved up around the walls to hidden doors and waited. Ally returned from her own fight, her clothing was stained with blood like his was. She looked the werewolves over, and made her way around the growling group to Rahkesh.

"Got any ideas?" Rahkesh asked.

"Dump a bucket of acid on their heads?" Ally growled, "There's a secret passage over here." Rahkesh got up and followed her around a column and into one of the walls that was hung with glowing magical vines. The vines rippled aside and a hole appeared in the wall.

"How do you find these things?" Rahkesh asked as they went around the fight and came out in another corridor.

"A lot of random wandering, and checking for spots on the walls containing a lot of magic." Ally said, "how did your session go?"

"Well enough. He was holding back a lot, for the sparring later today and tomorrow." Rahkesh said.

"Similar story here, all the same the burns on my side will leave a few scars…do you sense something?" Ally asked, and stopped midstep, Rahkesh twisted aside to avoid running into her. He paused and reached out mentally, feeling lightly for anything odd.

Immediately his mind encountered a roaring mass of angry magic around the corner. Images of fire and spraying blood flew in front of his eyes; he was drowning in the violent magic surging around him. Rahkesh staggered, and closed down all telepathy, wave after wave of ferocious power hit against his walls. Ally cast a spell and pale green shield appeared around them.

"Anti-telepathy shield." She said, Rahkesh pulled himself upright and examined what he was sensing. Vampire magic, a little, mixed with something else, something far more dangerous.

"Oh shit, that's Daray." He said, Ally closed her eyes as she searched as well.

"Yes, one angry demon." She said finally, before heading in the direction of the bursts of demonic energy. Not about to confront a possibly insane demon alone Rahkesh paused and sent out a telepathic call to professor Namach, focusing on the ancient's aura and trying to send the message directly to him, before following. A vague bit of telepathy caught his senses in return, and Rahkesh sent an image of the raging power he could feel. Seconds later Namach's telepathic presence vanished, and then reappeared much closer, and then vanished again.

Rahkesh followed Ally around the corner and into a hidden room; this was the massive opening that ran from the floor they were on all the way out the top of the mountain.

Daray was in his demon form, crouched on the other side of the circular room from the door. He was glowing gold and shaking uncontrollably. The light streaming down from the tiny speck of sky far above didn't touch him, but bent around him in swirling color, leaving the demon encased in shadows.

His scales seemed oddly shiny and reddish, Rahkesh crept closer, then jumped back when power flared and black and red fire rushed into his path.

"He's covered in blood." Ally said. There was a dark puddle around the demons four clawed feet, and blood dripped from his massive black wings.

Seconds later the shadows along the wall seemed to ripple and slide out into the center of the room and Namach dropped out of them. The vampire was wearing an odd combination of modern black combat boots with many-millennia-old-style black and gold robes with black silk pants and shirt. He took one look at the demon and began casting spells on the floor to stop the blood, which was slowly dissolving the floor stones. Namach smelled the air, and carefully touching the magic that was keeping the light away from the demon.

"His own blood." The ancient said finally, "it's turning acidic when it hits the light. He isn't actually injured, it's just seeping out between the scales and from his pores." Daray's eyes snapped open, the usually colors and had been washed away and glowing white. Fire spurted out through his nostrils and the demon made a screeching sound – without opening his mouth, Ally clamp her hands over her ears and Rahkesh grimaced.

"Any ideas?" He asked Namach. The ancient vampire looked up, and bricks from the walls bent inwards to close off the light. Rahkesh cast light spells, summoning small balls of blue light and attaching them to the walls.

The artificial light didn't seem to be as much of a problem as sunlight had been. The magics wrapped around Daray slowly diminished, then vanished completely.

"Daray?" Rahkesh asked cautiously, there was only the sound of low heavy breathing in response. Namach stepped forward, raising a hand, bloodmagic runes on his palm beginning to glow.

Daray lunged for the ancient vampire, who stepped aside as the demon hurtled into the space he'd been occupying. Namach moved so fast he looked like he'd apparated rather than taken a few steps. The demon roared, spewing fire, and the blood covering his body began to burn, cloaking him in bright flames. Daray turned and attacked again, raising his wings high and leaping at Namach, who once again moved too fast for him.

"Enough!" Namach's angry bark contained enough power to send a wave of dizziness shooting through Rahkesh. Ally stumbled against the wall, pushed away from it and swayed on her feet. Daray snarled and raged at the vampire facing him across the circular room. "Back to your vampire form NOW!" Rahkesh and Ally winced again at the surge of ancient magic rising around them. Rahkesh began pressing up mental walls, Ally shook her head clear, took one look at the furious demon and angry ancient vampire, and headed for the door.

"Right, you deal with the pissy demon, I'll not hang around thanks." She said, Rahkesh looked between the snarling demon and the increasingly angry ancient. Leaving was probably the smart idea. "Rahkesh?" Ally asked from the open door. Rahkesh looked back at his friend, who, by the look on Namach's face, was already in deep trouble for even thinking of ever attacking him, never mind actually doing so and the ignoring a direct command.

"One moment." Rahkesh said, reaching out gentle with a bit of telepathy. The fanged scaled head twisted to look at him, eyes glowing white. Rahkesh threw himself to the floor as a wave of fire tumbled from the demon's mouth. Ally, standing behind him dodged out of the room, the fire slammed the door shut and melted the hinges.

Rahkesh looked up, and rolled to the side and leaped away as Daray charged, claws raking great gouges into the stone floor. Rahkesh hurled the demon away wandlessly, and felt the magic burned away by the flaming blood. Daray whirled around and, screaming and roaring, attacked Namach again. This time the ancient didn't dodge. He held his ground and at the last moment grabbed the flaming jaws in one hand and forced the demon's mouth closed, stopping the blast of fire. His other hand came up from underneath and hit Daray in the chest hard enough to crack his sternum and flip him head over heels all the way across the room. Daray hit the far wall hard enough to leave a dent and slid to the floor.

For a moment the demon didn't move as its natural healing powers, coupled with the vampires usual quick healing, cleared most of the damage. Then the burning blood flared into waves of fire. Daray untangled his wings, screaming in rage, and twisted around to attack anew. Namach snarled in annoyance and tried again.

"_DOWN!"_ The words were charged with bloodmagic induced mental control, and Rahkesh's knees buckled, he hit the floor hard, banging his head on the wall on the way down. Everything went a little grey and he began closing off his mind. When he stopped shaking and his vision returned he looked around. For a moment the demon wavered, the power of Namach's voice holding it immobile. Something changed in its eyes, as though the vampire were trying to convince the demonic side not to anger the ancient vampire further. Even possessed by demonic instinct the heavily ingrained vampiric submission to superiors was almost winning, then it shook away the command and lunged again.

Namach was not used to being disobeyed, Rahkesh had never heard of anyone not doing exactly what the ancient told them to. And surely never a student. The vampire's nostrils flared and his eyes began to glow with fury, nonsubmission was never permitted amongst vampires. Had Daray been in his vampiric form he probably would have had a shattered spine at the least by this point. Namach waited until the demon was on his feet again, then he uttered a low growl.

The cement amongst the stones first froze, and then turned to dust, the floor began to shake, Daray rocked a little, whining and shaking his wings as the vampire fought to obey the command while the demon instincts drove him to attack.

Vocalizations like growls and snarls were used as an actual method of communication amongst vampires. Magic could more effectively be maintained in the sound waves of a growl than it could in words. The intensity of the power a vampire could throw into a growl or roar was proportional to how old and how powerful they were. A vampire of Daray's age could hardly put anything but sound into a snarl, but from a vampire of Namach's age and power even a soft growl was enough to send weaker vampires to their knees. The reaction to the vocalizations of an older more powerful vampire was almost entirely subconscious and while a vampire could block telepathy or spells no one had ever found any way to fight the voice magics contained in growls and snarls.

But the demon was giving it a try, the vampire would have stopped and collapsed, begging for mercy, the first time Namach shouted, but the demon wasn't listening and its instincts were in control. With the actual demon long since dead this meant that it was basically mindless, with no more cognitive ability than the average insect had. Mentally it had stopped, but physically it kept going. Daray's vampire mind had already sustained some heavy damage from not being able to obey, but the demon wasn't stopping. It reared its head back, preparing to hurl its fire again.

Namach's growl rose sharply in volume and a mass of choking stifling power filled the room. As the demon leaped into the air Namach's growl rose again, and abruptly the power changed, coalescing into a mass of fury aimed at the demon.

The immediate telepathic command contained in the magic made Rahkesh's bones hurt and he felt his mental shields dissolving and collapsing, and when Namach growled again his vision went black, dimly he felt himself hit the floor again, and then everything went out.

Namach ignored the unconscious mortal and roared his magical command at the demon. Inches from colliding with the ancient the command hit, and the demon collapsed to the floor with an agonized scream. Namach ripped through Daray's remaining mental shields and drove the younger vampire's mind and magics aside, brining his own in, tightening a magical noose around the demonic power until it too collapsed and fell away. He followed it, trapping the demon instincts in waves of agony as he took control of Daray's magics and forced them to comply, ripping from within the demonic instincts the reason for the sudden transformation. Finished he sent bolts of magic flying invisibly into the still form at his feet, latched onto Daray's usual vampire self, and forced a transformation. Driving the demon's physical presence back with its mental one, ignoring the horrible screaming from the younger vampire as his bones snapped under the ancient's magics, knit themselves, and snapped again as his body shifted.

When Tristan Namach reigned in his powers and fixed the walls, for they were nearly collapsing, Daray was back in his vampire form, surrounded by a pool of blood. The ancient vampire glanced over the mortal, who was unconscious. A brief examination with a touch of healing magic pulled information from Rahkesh's bloodmagic, telling him that there was no real damage. Because the demon had been trying to avoid his commands bits of stray power had flowed into Rahkesh's mind, and mortal minds were not meant for that type of vampiric communication. At least not from a vampire of his power - he'd killed mortals by growling at them before. Really Rahkesh was lucky to be alive, his mind's instinctive retreat had saved it from more intensive damage, and his bloodmagic had combined with what was probably another manifestation of the dragon magics to keep his body alive. All the same Rahkesh's mind, facing a power it couldn't hope it fight, had retreated dangerously far and was shut off completely. It would take him a few hours to come around.

Tristan glanced down, Daray had woken a little and was choking on his own blood, pouring into his lungs from tears in his throat caused by his screaming, his eyes were bloodshot from burst blood vessels and his skin was charred, slowly healing with the aid of his bloodmagics. He wouldn't be fit for even a telepathic conversation for hours, his mind shredded so badly he couldn't form a coherent thought yet, and the remaining fractures were still mending while his lungs fought to clear out the blood and his vampiric powers reorganized themselves. Disobeying the commands of a more powerful vampire had severe physical consequences, one of which was the near-complete shut down of his nervous system and his senses. He was blind, deaf, and couldn't feel anything but the remnants of the angry power that had forced his body to transform. The younger vampire swayed, hardly able to lift his head off the ground, Tristan snarled softly and the young vampire flinched and collapsed immediately. One didn't need to be able to hear in order to receive the power behind vampiric vocalizations. A light mental nudge was all that was required to black out his mind as well.

_Tristan, care to explain why my school's foundations are half shattered?_ Nvara purred into his mind. Her tone deceptively mild.

_His demon form is ready for a metamorphosis. However he doesn't know what to do and the demon magics are trying to act on instinct._ Tristan said, knowing from the information he'd forced the demon instincts to give up that the demon would undergo the change no matter what, and that they needed to arrange a controlled setting.

_I see_ The headmistress said, reading the information from the uppermost layer of his mind. _Rahkesh?_

_Alive, he has a true full-blown paranoia of having anything touch his mind in any way. I'll call him out of whatever corner of his subconscious he's hiding in. I don't think there was any actual damage, other than some light bruising. _

_I can feel his animagus trying to get out._

_That won't be a problem._ The old vampire replied, _I can get the thunderbird out of the way long enough for him to wake up._ The headmistress, knowing what Namach's own animaguses were, agreed to that.

_I am more concerned about this pressuring one of his other forms into awakening. Too much too fast can result in a completely loss of mental stability and turn one into a squib. When he awakes I'll teach him to seal off all his other possible forms for the time being, he needs to absorb the two he has_. Tristan agreed, knowing the dangers of pushing animagus transformations, there were reasons why most witches and wizards didn't bother with them. The threat of loosing your mind and/or ending up a squib was enough to frighten most away.

_He has others lurking around in there, he'll need to clam them and shut them off completely, or they'll come into conflict with the thunderbird, until that has stabilized anything more is dangerous. _Having put the school's foundations back to rights Namach levitated his two students and stepped into the shadows, wrapping them around himself and sliding from place to place, flowing out of them again in his rooms and conjuring two extra couches.

_Do I want to know what you plan on doing with our young Ateres?_ Nvara asked, and reminded the vampire of what had happened the last time he and the Ateres matriarch had had a "conflict"

_I do not tolerate such behavior from anyone, no matter what the circumstances. His vampiric training should have overridden any demonic instincts, no matter how powerful. He must be reminded of his place. But I won't kill him, we don't need Cyala starting another world war like she did the last time someone harmed one of her clan. _

_I won't ask for the details then, nothing permanent._ Nvara said sternly, _don't growl at me Tristan._ She warned when he growled and replied that permanent damage would be the best way to ensuring Daray did not forget again. _Punish him if you want but I think he's got the point already. _The ancient grouchily agreed, grumbling about the lack of proper discipline among young vampires.

_The reason we have a problem is the old ones being too gentle with out of control youngsters._ He complained.

_I would hardly call Daray out of control, and I don't recall him being any sort of problem ever before. You would be better off skinning some of the others like Atalia who are getting a little out of hand. They forget the differences in power between themselves and their elders, Daray never really has. _ Tristan sent her an image of what he'd recently done to _that_ young vampire, and a handful of other young upstarts, as a reply. And felt a mental chuckle. _You vampires are so pleasant to each other. I trust you returned her eyes to their previous condition eventually?_ Tristan didn't answer that. _Next time put a ward around the room, Strawlime's complaining about ruined potions._ Nvara said, sending him just a piece of the outraged multi-lingual curses she was hearing from the resident sadist potions master. The ancient vampire chuckled unapologetically and cut the link.

Tristan Namach looked over at the two unconscious students lying on the couches and smiled darkly, the most promising students he'd seen in centuries were, predictably, the ones with the most issues. Thunderbirds, Basilisks, and demons, and the others wondered why he enjoyed teaching century after century – there was rarely a dull moment, especially at Akren.

XXXX

When Rahkesh woke it was early afternoon. His skull throbbed and he felt like he might vomit if he blinked too hard, or knock himself out again. He knew where he was instantly; he could hear Eli the magical frill-neck hissing and rustling his tail over the floor stones. The lizard was nearby and as usual none to pleased with Rahkesh's presence. And Namach's rooms always had this feeling of immense dark power around them, that and the sharp dangerous feeling of a predator about.

He kept his eyes closed and did a slow review of his occlumency, bringing up layers and layers of walls surrounding his entire mind and every thought. The vampiric magic hadn't been directed at him, so he supposed he'd gotten off easy to only have a headache and not a completely ruined mind.

He wasn't sure how weakened his defenses were; they seemed okay but he'd have to head to the meditation rooms the mind magic classes used to make sure. The rooms were enchanted to aid in meditation, and had various types of incense or stone and feather magic that allowed one to work with mind magics with greater ease than meditation alone permitted. Rahkesh wasn't taking any serious mind magic classes until the next year so he had only visited the rooms twice to see how they worked and if they helped. He had done a lot of research on how to use what they offered, and maybe it was time to start incorporating mind magic in his bloodmagic, though that was usually reserved for more advanced works of bloodmagic. Some fairly easy low level ones for added stability in his shields.

"Awake?" Namach's voice asked softly somewhere off to his right. Rahkesh opened his eyes carefully – mental magical stress could over-sensitize the eyes. The gold, silver and gemstones about Namach's rooms glittered in a soft candlelight. Heavy dark red velvet drapes were closing off the massive arched windows and the glowing plants that hung from the high Greek-looking stone columns had somehow been turned down until they barely gave off any light.

"We'll be careful adding light; your optic nerves may have been a little over stressed from the magic rocketing around in your brain." Namach said, moving into Rahkesh's view.

"Daray?"

"On the other couch. He's alright." Namach answered, a slight growl in his voice. Rahkesh glanced over, but couldn't tell what state his friend was in through the bloody matted hair and blood encrusted robes. Eli stalked out from behind the couch and settled onto the fur in front of the fireplace, keeping one beady eye fixed on Rahkesh and the spines along his back on end.

"What happened?" Rahkesh asked, his headache was slowly fading. Really the Eli had nothing to worry about – he was far too tired and dizzy to pose a danger to a mouse much less a magical lizard.

"We know that demons go through metamorphosis's much like some insects do." Namach explained, falling into lecture mode. "The demon who's body Daray has was not an adult and still has one or two stages to through. We can't know how many, but it is probably more than one. There's some sort of biological clock that tells the demon's body when to begin. The demon knows what to do, with a vampiric mind the instincts kicked in, but since we don't know what demons actually do it is hard to follow through with what the demonic instincts say is required. We thought we'd have a few days between when he first started feeling the change and when he'd need to transform to set up something, but it appears that either the change is either much more sudden than anyone thought, or it was triggered by some of the tests we did recently picking through what knowledge he might have received from his other body instinctively."

"Oh. How long was I out?"

"Three hours." Namach said, "I spoke to Vaeryes, so he knows why you two weren't in class."

Three hours, that made it a little before noon. He would have time to get to the mind magic rooms.

"What do we do about him needing to go through that metamorphosis?" Rahkesh asked, pulling himself into a sitting position, the room tilted around for a moment before solidifying again.

"We need more information on demons. We've already exhausted all the known sources, so we'll have to start looking further. If it were anything else I'd talk Xanthius into looking through what the elves might know. But I'd really rather not involve them, if it is at all possible. Things get very complicated when that happens, and there's a good chance they'd kill Daray outright rather than allow anything that is even part demon to exist in this universe."

"Why?"

"The demons were sealed into another universe, commonly known as the Underworld. The presence of any amount of demon magic in this world might give them something to link to should they attempt to break the last remaining seal. Daray's existence does, to some miniscule amount, put the entire world at risk. The elves have fought several wars already to keep this world free of demons, even though they don't really reside here themselves, they wouldn't tolerate even the faintest possibility of another one if it could be prevented."

"But they already know about Daray." Rahkesh pointed out, "professor Xanthius was helping with the tests on him."

"Yes, but we convinced Xanthius, and therefore who ever he reports to, if he does, that Daray isn't going to go through any metamorphoses, not magical ones anyway. Physical ones wouldn't be unusual. So long as the elves believe he can't ever access the demon magic apart from fire breathing, and all the remnants of the demon's mind and soul are gone, along with the demonic instincts, he's safe. Xanthius doesn't know that the demonic instincts remain, and that the transformations he'll go through are magical. Xanthius only takes part in the soul magic. The demon's soul is fully gone. And Daray copies his memories into a pensive before each of those sessions then I dull them and put them aside in his mind so Xanthius can't find them. Xanthius' part of the testing is finished anyway; he won't be doing any more experiments so there'll be no way to find out about anything. Daray's scent shouldn't change with the metamorphosis and his soul certainly won't, so Xanthius can't find out unless he over hears or is told."

"Where else can we go then?"

"Auzric. His real name is Akanthos but he was last known as Auzric. He was the chieftain of the druids that summoned a dozen or so young demons, shortly after Merlin's death.

When we first realized that Daray would go through some sort of metamorphosis I contacted the book-keeper, record holder, whatever you want to call him. The vampires set up a system back near our origins of keeping track of all of us. We have a tendency to disappear for centuries and it was realized early on that there had to be someone who knew where to find us, or at least information about every vampire, in case someone needed to be contacted. However we can't trust each other, so there has been a series of vampires, living in complete isolation in anonymity, whose job it is to keep records on the lives of every vampire. As you can imagine it takes some considerable telepathic acrobatics, most vampires don't know there is someone watching and it isn't safe to actually send in reports ourselves; that would give away their location."

"Is he still alive then?" Rahkesh asked.

"He vanished days after summoning those demons. And, more interesting, he summoned the demons with the purpose of sending them after a rival religion, but they never killed anyone. In fact beyond the records of the summoning the demons have never been heard of. No one knows what became of them. It's hard to miss a dozen demons. One of them was an infant arch-demon."

"So he is dead then."

"No he isn't. The watcher gets an instant telepathic notification of every death. All vampires spring from the same bloodline and he's tapped into that. Auzric isn't dead. He may have changed names again. But a one-eyed vampire can't hide. They're too rare. And the eye was removed in such a way that illusions won't hide it and he can't regrow or replace it. Auzric is very much alive, but the watcher can't tell where." Namach said, Rahkesh noted that he seemed quite puzzled by this.

"He would have to be pretty old, and that kind of power can't hide easily." Rahkesh pointed out.

"That's another thing. Creations of new vampires are usually registered as soon as they get into their teens and start serious training, or as soon as they're seen publicly as vampires. The watcher senses them about then. But there's no record giving a clue as to when Auzric…Akanthos, was created. By the time he first emerged, seven hundred years after the fall of Rome, he already wielded power that was more than a century old, possibly much older. He had a missing eye even then, and it has always been generally known that he was turned as an adult, and he lost the eye as a child. He's like a phantom really. The only records about him longer than four or five sentences are when he summoned those demons."

"Great, we have a possibly non-existent vampire to find, and a dozen demons that did exist but then didn't exist." Rahkesh muttered.

"It goes father than that. Daray's life may be at stake here but there could be even more serious consequences into prying into this Auzric. He was part of something, something very dangerous and very important, back in Merlin's time. The record-holder wouldn't tell me what." Namach was angry about that refusal, Rahkesh could tell that instantly.

"What sort of thing?"

"He wouldn't even say what. It had to do with the elves, and it jeopardized world stability. Him and a group of other vampires. They were working on something that went too far, and it's possible the elves intervened. The watcher said he wasn't supposed to know what he knows, and he was too frightened of the elves to say anything more."

"So professor Xanthius has to stay out of this at all costs, we couldn't even get his help independently of the elf government." Rahkesh said.

"Yes, we were lucky, he's not here today. Visiting soul magic focal points or some thing with a class. I'll put a shield around Daray's mind, I don't think Xanthius would pry into yours, too much chance you'd just shut it off and die rather than letting him find out anything. All the same you need to work on your shields a lot. We know the dragon's blood intensified your mind blocks, dragons have them naturally, you need to start using that." Namach told him. Rahkesh nodded his agreement, deciding he was a good as he was going to get without some serious meditation he rose, stepping carefully over a growling Eli, and headed for the door.

As he paused to open the doors Namach spoke again.

"It is interesting though; that the elves only started returning to this world after Auzric summoned those demons. And he disappeared at the same time." Rahkesh waited, but the ancient didn't say anything more, and after a moment he realized Namach hadn't been speaking to anyone in particular and left to seek out the mind magic rooms.

The door closed behind Rahkesh, and Namach's thoughtful look vanished, replaced by dark anger. He rose and moved to stand beside the young vampire lying on the other couch. Releasing the spell holding him asleep he waited, a low growl rumbling through him, for Daray to wake. They needed to have long and bloody chat about obeying your superiors.

XXXX

It wasn't until he was meditating, the enchanted incense allowing his mind to relax and work at faster speeds, that he remembered that there _was _another option. One that offered similar dangers, but also a better solution – Sharahak. If Sharahak still lived. He could find Sharahak - Rahkesh had the key to doing so; the bond created when he'd saved Sharahak's life.

Rahkesh didn't awaken from his meditative trance until a few hours after lunch, skipping the meal. His mind needed a little more reconstruction than he'd thought, and his body protested the very idea of eating. Stretching, he rose and quickly left, thanking the mind magics professor who'd waited for him to finish before closing the rooms. They were kept closed from a bit after lunch until after dinner because almost everyone was in class. The professor mentioned that he'd felt what a mess Rahkesh was in when he'd come by. Rahkesh explained he'd gotten caught in the middle of a many-way vampiric mind war. It was close to the truth. The professor, a mortal, gave a sympathetic grimace.

Deciding he still wasn't likely to keep much down if he tried to eat Rahkesh didn't bother stopping by the kitchens and headed back to his rooms. Rianae and Silas were looking for a location to go hunting that afternoon and evening, and had invited him and Ally with them. Whatever city they went to he could eat there while the vampires picked out the best hunting grounds.

He met Daray on the way back to his rooms, and did a double take at the sight of him. Daray was clean of blood, but looked like a body several days dead. Beyond pale his skin was gray and had unhealthy sag to it. He was moving slower than usual and swaying a bit.

"Namach?" Rahkesh asked, falling in beside the less-than-half-conscious vampire and sending a stern look at a vampire who was watching, seeing a weaker student and an opportunity. The vampire sneered and backed away.

"Wasn't pleased with my ignoring his orders earlier." Daray replied shortly.

"And?" Rahkesh asked cautiously. He wasn't sure he actually wanted to know any of the details. Vampiric ideas of discipline were stuff that sounded like it came out of the Spanish Inquisition. Only in addition to all the usual medieval torture devices they also used bloodletting, sex, and magic. The cruciatus curse was fairly uncommon, simply because vampire preferred more physical means. Using magic to physically remove bones from the body was fairly standard. They used sex for domination, and though he couldn't see any puncture marks he was certain Namach had removed most of Daray's blood. Leaving him nearly comatose. Leaning around Rahkesh reached out mentally, and caught a vague sense of vampiric magics. Instead of the typical feeding areas Namach had used the back of Daray's neck. The marks were unhealed, held open and bleeding by Namach's magic they would probably scar over slowly and leave a lasting mark. They were also deep, very deep; deep enough to have hit the vertebrae in the back of his neck.

"I don't think you actually want to know all of it. Burned most of my skin off, tore out a few tendons." Daray replied shortly, not giving any details, and Rahkesh decided not to ask in the future. He caught Rahkesh's raised eyebrow and wrinkled nose, "vampiric dominance thing, my mind should have been capable of overriding the demon when ordered to, but I'm not all that good at following orders, nor particularly deferential to anyone."

"Uh huh. And you all wonder why I _don't_ want to switch species?" Rahkesh asked dryly.

"Being vampire is better than being mortal. The advantages far outweigh the social aspects." Daray said defensively. Rahkesh snorted, right, and getting ripped apart by your elders and anyone more powerful than you was a good life. Even if most of them were very reasonable and didn't attack without some form of provocation.

"Since the transfiguration professor is out this afternoon and tomorrow morning Rianae and Silas are going hunting, Ally and I are going to tag along. The local vampires in the closest cities are in a mood over some power shift in their hierarchy so outsiders aren't exactly welcome. Rianae asked Ally for an American city, she suggested Vegas, I think they're headed there for the night. Are you up to coming?"

"Yes. I'll need to hunt anyway, mortal blood. Magical if possible. Fortunately there are witches and wizards who willingly let vampires drink there blood in any large city."

"They _what_?" Rahkesh asked incredulously.

"You've been bitten. It certainly wasn't painful was it? Quite the opposite."

"They _let_ them _drink their blood_?"

"Not everyone has your paranoia."

"It's not paranoia. Why would anyone _ever _let anyone read their minds like that?"

"No idea. It _is_ a little strange, but obviously no vampire is going to complain about it. And if you can't find those that actually go out with the purpose of being fed on, mortals are fairly easy to seduce."

"Since when?" Rahkesh asked. Not that a few of the vampire students hadn't tried, but they were rather pathetic at it. He'd had great fun electrocuting the pushy ones.

"I was talking about the average young foolish witch or wizard." Daray said. "Most of them aren't too bright." Rahkesh had to agree to that, most of those he'd known at Hogwarts, get them in a group and dare them to and they would. Still…Rahkesh eyed his friend, wondering if he'd seen a mirror yet.

"Not with the way you're looking. You my friend appear to be exactly what you are – a walking corpse. Better cast some _really_ good glamours."

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I think we're getting down to an actual battle with Voldemort soon. It's a little hard to build that into everything else; Rahkesh is going to be very busy.

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I know some people have been asking after Sharahak and demons in general. There were a lot of questions as to why Rahkesh doesn't want to be a vampire, hope I've answered that. What do you think? Reason enough?

For those who were hoping for a lot of torture, sorry for no gory details of what happened to Daray. I wrote the details, but this story already has the highest possible rating and I don't want to test the owners with anything too graphic. So I had to delete that when I realized that I would need a higher rating. Read it carefully and you'll find some hints, just use your imagination. Tell me what you think.

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Please review!


	34. Chapter 34

A Second Chance at Life is now being translated into French by the immensely talented Eirame! You can check out her translation on her account.

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Many many thanks to everyone who reviewed, you kept me going while I didn't have time to write and was going crazy with excess plot ideas that I couldn't type up.

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Chapter 34

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Over the next few days Daray worked with Namach and the headmistress to keep control over his demon form. Long meditation session and work to block the demon into a tiny corner of his mind, while also trying to shed aside the advancing magics into other areas to slow it. Whatever they were doing it seemed to work, and Daray kept control of his form. He recovered quickly from the vicious torture and much to Rahkesh's surprise it seemed to have helped his control. Whatever Namach had done had worked, though the methods were rather gruesome.

Surprisingly having an uncontrollable demon raging in him calmed the vampire, as if the danger pushed his mind calmer and calmer as it got harder to hold on. Rahkesh noticed a decrease in the numbers of fights Daray had with other students, vampire or otherwise.

However the one poor fool vampire who mistook the almost-tranquility for meekness and tried to get at Daray's blood while he seemed to be slower than usual wound up with acids dumped into his eyes and several yards of intestine removed. While Daray didn't pick fights anymore his viciousness towards anyone who attacked him increased dramatically, probably a response to not feeling in top form.

Rahkesh kept an eye on his friend's behavior, finding it interesting to watch the changes, and a little dangerous. Silas complained that he smelled different, and the werewolves had apparently noticed as well, though Rahkesh didn't. However everyone kept their observations to themselves, and so most of the mortal students and veela weren't aware of anything. Though the fae abruptly started keeping away from Daray. Which annoyed Daray no end – he had a liking for fae blood and Rahkesh knew he occasionally fed on the weaker fae who couldn't fight well enough to get away. However given that a good fight got the demon riled up he stopped feeding on the better fae, temporarily. Namach believed, and so did the headmistress, that a demon would only transform if the environmental conditions were right. The transformation would initially cause great weakness from the use and transformation of so much magic. And it wouldn't be a good survival strategy to do that in a bad time. Nvara was working on a program that would hopefully help Daray to trick his demon into thinking that it was a vary bad time, and stall it.

While Daray struggled with his demon side Rahkesh searched for Sharahak. The vampire-turned-demon would be well over a thousand years old, and no one knew the exact demon life span. It was likely that he had died of old age, but Rahkesh wasn't ready to give up just yet. It was very possible that enough of Sharahak's vampire magics had remained to delay aging, or keep him immortal.

He attempted to find a telepathic link with the demon, but meditation sessions left him with only his own mind…and the ever present darkness lurking about from the connection with Voldemort. Rahkesh supposed that the demon's link might have wanted darker company and set up nearer to that, but he was too thankful of the peace he'd gotten from that old wound lately and didn't try tapping on it any. He was friends with Sharahak, and enemies with Voldemort, Sharahak owned him a debt, Voldemort wanted him dead, the two were not likely to be able to coexist easily.

That Sharahak still carried the tiny diamond vial of blood Rahkesh had given him was certain. The vampire turned demon would never have taken it off and so long as he lived it was very nearly indestructible. Rahkesh knew the proper method for summoning Sharahak, but the connection that should have existed did not, meaning that it was unlikely Sharahak would be able to hear or sense him at all.

Namach had proposed that Sharahak might be in another universe, parallel reality, had time traveled before Rahkesh's birth, or was in one of the areas like Akren, which existed outside of the world, between spaces. Sometimes bloodmagic did not work between individuals in different places in that situation, though it shouldn't have taken away the connection. Any of those worried Rahkesh, recalling how the record keeper had been terrified of the elves finding out about full demons in the world. He also knew that it could mean that Sharahak was somehow in the demon realm, sent there of his own will or by someone else, and that had snapped the connection. Or possibly, was dead. Rahkesh doubted he was dead, he thought he would be able to tell if he was. He knew Sharahak was alive, he couldn't say how, but it seemed to be a message from his magics and blood, and so he knew it had to be true.

"I don't know what to tell you then, I may know an awful lot more than most about vampiric blood debts, simply because they are bloodmagic, but this is very unusual." Namach said, frowning into a diamond and gold goblet of blood. A bottle labeled _Rasputin_ sat on the table in front of him. Namach had what often seemed to be an endless store of blood from well-known historical figures. And he pulled it out whenever other vampires dropped by. A status thing possibly, Rahkesh had never asked, occasionally the answers to his questions about seemingly innocent bits of vampire etiquette or custom drew answers he'd rather not have heard. Mariah had just been there giving some advice on whether or not dragon magic would have affected the link at all. She doubted it, having seen dragons form that type of bond before. If dragons formed bonds based on life debts then their magic would never attack such a link, even if it had been altered and locked into a human. Across the coffee table from Namach, Rahkesh swirled the tea in his own cup around and tried to come up with some other solution.

"Would it be possible to use bloodmagic to trace his path?"

"Where he went after you saved his life, every movement he made until the present? Yes, unless he went back in time, then you'd stop at the time where he is. The problems are loosing your own mind tracing that, getting your mind stuck in whatever time he's in, or whatever place, and your body here. Clearly that would kill you, the separation isn't sustainable across times. You might get your magic attached to the link and being turned into a muggle when it all got sucked away into other times, creating a massive vortex of unattached magic in the past and thereby possibly erasing the present. Getting caught in his mind, getting caught in the demonic magics, the only way out would be death. Or winding the blood debt too deeply into both of you and accidentally creating a life bond – which I doubt either of you wants and therefore it would probably kill you both." Namach agreed, and listed off the dangers, Rahkesh realized he'd probably already thought of that idea. Bloodmagic was definitely out, none of those sounded remotely possible much less survivable.

"You still think finding Auzric is our best chance?" He asked. Namach nodded slowly.

"Yes. The demons he called were not killed; they existed here for some time. They were here at least long enough that he would have seen at minimum one metamorphosis and possibly more. From his memories we can piece together what happens, even if he doesn't know anything about it. If we can find the location I, or a few friends of mine, may be able to pull out the place's memory the memory of the demonic magics – this universe remembers demon magic after it's over because demons did not originate in this universe, they came from somewhere else, and so places hold an echo long after the demons have left." Namach explained.

"Great, they're not just demons they're also aliens." Rahkesh muttered, bloody wonderful. Did Daray know? Perhaps he should get his friend an alien costume, muggle stores had them.

"No, aliens come from other planets, in the definition you're thinking of. Demons came from another universe entirely." Namach corrected. "Now Goblins came from another planet. And, now that I think of it, the elves came from somewhere else too, they aren't native to Earth either, but they also came from another universe rather than a nearby planet." He grinned at Rahkesh's wide eyes. "Human aren't native either." He added, purposefully timing it so that Rahkesh choked on his tea in shock. "Your evolutionary ancestors were brought here, magically bound into an existing gene pool on Earth by the elves. They're not sharing the exact process by which they did that, but they did at one point tell us it happened." While Rahkesh coughed and glared the ancient vampire shot him another dark grin and continued, "Cyala has some of her family looking for Auzric, being good at what they do they're very good at finding people who are hiding."

"What if he's not hiding of his own will?"

"That would be more of a problem." Namach replied, a severe understatement. If the elves were keeping Auzric locked away somewhere, then the vampires would probably try to get him out, unless he had somehow wronged the elves. Species loyalty demanded it, even if it might have apocalyptic results. "Don't you worry over the consequences of that. If that is the case I will not allow it to become widely known, I've lived a long time and I don't feel like having someone end my existence for me."

"I however, have no intention of seeing one of mine die just because the elves are being fussy. If they're keeping Auzric I'll get him back." Cyala Ateres said firmly. Rahkesh forced himself not to jump, he hadn't heard her enter. Eli the magical frill-neck followed her in, rubbing his scaly head against her legs like a cat. The big lizard snarled warningly at Rahkesh, and Rahkesh quickly moved his feet so the lizard could pass, and then dodged Eli's spiked tail as it flicked up towards his eyes.

"Beast ought to spend a few weeks in obedience schooling." He grouched. Namach looked like was about to agree, but then Eli turned and gave his master as much a puppy-dog eyed look as a lizard could manage. Namach shrugged and picked him up, settling Eli onto the couch beside him and petting his frilled neck.

"I thought you were abducting the last of the trainee aurors?" Namach asked, handing Cyala a glass of blood, she waved it away.

"I don't care for _Rasputin_ much." She said, Namach shrugged and put it aside. "We got the last of them this morning."

"What happened?" Rahkesh asked, Moody had informed him of the planned attack on the training center. But that was supposed to have been days ago. Moody hadn't mentioned problems. Daniel the werewolf had said something, but it hadn't sounded serious. Everyone, it seemed, was closely following what was happening.

"A few of them made it into the basement and walled themselves off in some old cell blocks. The wards on the cell blocks were done a long time ago; possibly over a thousand years ago and possibly done by an Akren graduate. Back when Akren recruiters didn't get arrested or executed for recruiting in European schools."

"Thread magic wards?" Namach asked.

"Yes, three layers, no interconnection at all, different weavers for each. Getting through took a while. My brood has a few that excel in thread magic, but the best two were on assignment in Japan." Cyala explained. Rahkesh might not be able to do thread magic, but that hadn't stopped him from reading a book on it. If one person had created all three layers of wards then the wards would be connected, though only a little bit. And damaging one would cause slight damage to all. Having three different creators ensured that each layer had to be broken individually.

"Next on the list is?"

"We were planning on the Unspeakables, however we received a communication requesting an extra few days for them to get out of the country with their families. Apparently a whole crowd of them want to take off and need a bit more time." Cyala said, "Lord Hadrian agreed. We're planning a few raids on some night clubs that we known are a haven for vampire-hating witches and wizards. There're a lot of anti-vampire groups, and of course they like to gather to discuss how much they hate us blood drinkers. Actually there are several anti vampire cult-like groups emerging that have everyone very worried. They're very violent and not just towards vampires, but to anyone who doesn't hate us as much as they do. Young people, male mostly, who want authority and are finding being anti-vampire a good rallying point."

"Of course the worry isn't over whether they can harm you so much as them harming other mortals." Rahkesh said.

"Yes, a lot of people can't or won't leave, but aren't part of these groups. And people planning to leave are becoming targets, traitors to the cause and so on." Cyala agreed.

Rahkesh focused on Eli, trying not to let his worry show. It was summer and while the Akren "official" break hadn't started yet Hogwarts was closed and Ron had graduated. A legal adult now he would not be surprised if Ron was to be found these days circulating in the anti-vampire groups. Probably bragging to anybody who'd listen about what he was going to do to the vampires. Being oblivious he wouldn't hear warning and wouldn't notice anyone trying to use and manipulate him. He would be easy prey for groups looking for cannon fodder in their fights. Tell Ron he'd be a hero, throw him at the vampires, and if he managed to do some damage all the better, if he didn't, no loss.

Hermione had tried her hardest to keep tabs on Ron. But she wasn't comfortable with his new group, or any of the things he said and did. Plus now that most schools were out she was working on the program to get students out of Europe. She'd sent him word by way of Moody that she'd stopped accompanying Ron around, saying that his activities bother her too much. She hadn't specified anything, and Rahkesh was planning to visit during his break to see how she was faring and what she'd meant. Hermione had mentioned that Molly Weasely was upset with Ron's behavior and angry at him and Ginny had stopped talking to her brother. Ron didn't know Ginny would be attending Salem Academy in the fall instead of Hogwarts, and Arthur had quietly called Fred, George, and Bill home for that conversation. He'd invited Harry as well, but Rahkesh wondered if Harry's presence wouldn't just make things worse. He was however very worried about Ginny. Ron wouldn't take well to her going to a vampire-friendly country for school, and when Ron got irrational he did things he shouldn't. He could become dangerous and while Rahkesh knew Ginny could probably kick her brother's ass he was more worried about Ron's new friends, whoever they were.

Off to the side, on a woven mat near the wall, Daray suddenly woke out of the meditative trance Namach had sent him into a half hour earlier. The demon glanced over his shoulder at them and raised an eyebrow at his grandmother. Stretching he transformed back into a vampire. Eli growled softly, Rahkesh personally thought that the frill-neck had a problem with other magical reptiles. He'd been caught pouncing on Marluck's fire salamander (again) not two days before.

"Any progress?" Cyala asked. Daray growled and shook his head.

"No not really. My skin itches, like it doesn't fit right." He said, sitting down and accepting the potion Namach handed him. It smelled like rotting flesh and was neon purple.

"Rahkesh you've been working with an alumnus over there on their dark wizard problem, is he a part of their ministry?" Cyala asked.

"Yes. He was once one of their best aurors. Alastor Moody." Rahkesh answered.

"We need to do some reconnaissance in the Ministry buildings, do you think he would be willing to help?"

"At this point he'd probably be willing to do anything to mess with the Ministry." Rahkesh said with a chuckle, and a wince at the idea of Cyala Ateres and her band plotting with the trigger-happy paranoid auror. "I'll ask him if he would mind a visit from you, best get him to disable his wards first. I think he'll agree. So long as he has time for his plans. He's gathering forces for some major moves against Voldemort."

"Excellent. The werewolves are starting to get their act together and have said they're willing to commit to a fight against this Voldemort. And then deal with the various European governments in need of disposal. Elvira (Rianae's mother) says we can expect a similar response from the fae native to Europe. The ones from other places may prefer to wait a bit. The vampires seem to be in favor of actual offensive opposition but we're having some issues with multiple old ones in the same territory. There's a reason we don't gather much, many of us don't get along and don't want certain others in our territories." Cyala said.

That of course was just usual vampiric territoriality, they were after all predators and being territorial was second nature. However getting top many old ones in close proximity was unwise unless there was the threat of retribution from ancients like Namach to keep everyone suitably in line.

"How long is a decision going to take?" Rahkesh asked.

"We're holding another brief meeting tonight. Partially to discuss how to choose what young ones we leave alive, what criteria we establish for killing mortals on the battlefield, rules when in another's territory, stuff like that." Cyala said, she and Namach shared a distinctly unenthusiastic look. Daray snickered. "The more extreme anti-mortal elements are going to be a problem, and will likely refuse to help outside their territory until an agreement is reached. As will those who are overly fond of mortals. Having the two sides at a table when discussing battle and enslavement/torture rules for captives is occasionally entertaining. We may have to kill one or two to get the rest to leave their more radical ideas aside and negotiate at all."

"My sympathies." Rahkesh said, he could image how nasty those discussions would get.

"Can we get that in video?" Daray requested, and received scowls from both older vampires. "For educational purposes." He tried again, Cyala blinked, and slowly shook her head.

"I don't know what you'd expect to see, vampires fighting."

"Maybe some new curses." Daray suggested.

"Hmph. Perhaps." Daray let it drop.

"What other magical creatures are choosing sides?" Rahkesh asked. The centaurs had already announced themselves ready for a violent opposition of Voldemort and anyone who tried to place any sort of restrictions on them. But there was a current silence from the other magical beings.

"The veela held a secret conclave two nights ago. Voldemort made them an offer, and while pureblood supremacists are less likely to complain about them because of their beauty they've not been treated well lately. They're in a tough spot and have secretly sent out a message that they're willing to actively side with anyone opposing Voldemort and the current anti-magical creature laws. " Cyala told him.

"Why have the veela agreed? They haven't been outlawed yet."

"No but there have been restrictions imposed. Especially on their right to transform. There's talk of permanent magical restraints so that they can't transform They're being treated like dirt and they're getting very worried, they've been keeping to themselves because no one will hire them, except as whores, they're sex appeal is working against them." Namach explained. "Seems everyone's forgotten that not only do they transform, but they can be damn dangerous when pissed." The two vampires chuckled.

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When Rahkesh arrived back in his rooms he immediately noticed that the framed sheet of hippocampus hair on his dresser was glowing. Flicking a drop on blood onto it he watched as the image rippled outwards to fill the frame, showing a very cheerful looking Mad Eye.

"Siraka just called." Moody said, holding up a tiny cellphone. "She's ready."

"I'll be there tonight, seven." Rahkesh replied. Moody nodded and cut the connection.

Rahkesh had left another phone in the woods not far from Voldemort's underground fortress. Teaching his snake spy Siraka to dial a number hadn't been hard. Morse code in hisses had been a little more difficult. Her instructions had been to call Moody when she was ready to take out Nagini.

Rahkesh cut his end off, and then realized that he was going to be back home during the vampire meeting, he'd have to lock down on his magical signature. He didn't need a curious vampire finding out anything just yet. Andrew Farov might know what moody was doing, but that was doubtful, he'd helped them once but Moody claimed that he'd lied through his teeth about what it was actually for. With Farov probably out none of the old ones knew what was actually going on.

Siraka was a nonmagical snake, and so Rahkesh didn't expect her to kill Nagini on her own, he had found another way. The Akren library had books on horcruxes, apparently the hideous devices hadn't been all that uncommon at one point. They were all destructible, but a person who knew their own magic very well could structure that weakness to make it difficult. Since it was unlikely that Voldemort had known that he was not the world's only parseltongue at the time of Nagini's creation Rahkesh had guessed that he had worked the magics so that only parseltongue magic could do anything to the giant serpent. That way the only person capable of using magic on her was Voldemort. Voldemort had probably guessed at there being one or two vampire parseltongues around, and Rahkesh didn't see how he could have missed the few parseltongue healers…but Voldemort hadn't gone after them so he may have missed it. After all, Rahkesh had been looking for it; Voldemort would have concentrated his studies on other things. And if he had created his first horcrux at the age of sixteen – the diary – then his magic may have been damaged, and so the knowledge usually contained within the parseltongue magics might not be fully functional in Voldemort. A killing curse in parseltongue should be enough to destroy what remnant on Voldemort's soul resided in Nagini. And probably kill her too.

The cup would be more difficult to destroy; while Nagini was probably only susceptible to a parseltongue Rahkesh didn't know anything about the cup's weakness. He was starting to seriously consider asking Namach for help. He had a feeling the ancient vampire would agree, it was in his best interest to get rid of Voldemort. And Rahkesh was quite aware that Namach almost certainly knew what his real identity was, and hadn't called him yet on it because either he truly could not care less about it, or because he found it amusing to continue this way until Rahkesh actually told him. He was pretty sure Cyala knew as well, after all he was very friendly with the two youngest members of her flock. She would have done a very thorough background check and probably some tests he wasn't aware of while he'd been at her palace.

At seven that evening Rahkesh apparated to just a point a block away from Regulus's house, which was still their best base. The black fox on the porch sniffed the air for a moment before transforming into Regulus and letting him in. Tonks was sitting on a stool and waved cheerfully. Rahkesh waved back and echoed her greeting. The purple and green haired woman seemed immune to any seriousness of what they were doing, though Rahkesh knew that was only an act.

"When _did_ you become an animagus anyway?" Rahkesh asked. He hadn't had a whole lot of contact with Sirius's brother. Though they looked very much alike their personalities were very different. Regulus was quiet, shy, and a bit jumpy. However none of the others had found any reason to question his commitment to fighting Voldemort. Indeed, Moody had taken a liking to him, possibly because after hiding so much Regulus was a tad bit paranoid…or maybe more than a tad bit. Rahkesh had learned that he had done very well in the muggle tourism arena and had enjoyed living under his false name, and was hoping to get back to that life as soon as Voldemort was gone, leaving the name of Black behind him once again. He had a girlfriend in Australia and they were hoping to marry sometime soon. She was a witch from a small but genetically very powerful family and knew enough Occlumency to keep his real identity secret from just about anyone.

"Shortly before I fled. I used some of my brother's old notebooks as a guide." Regulus said.

"Evening Rahkesh." Moody said, one eye on the small snake sitting on the table and the other spinning around to look at Rahkesh. Rahkesh nodded to Moody, and to Remus, Tonks, Kingsley, and Bill Weasely. Then he took the last seat and turned to the young snake. Sygra uncoiled from his neck and settled onto the table, causing the young non-magical snake to jump and stare at her, tongue flickering madly, finally it bowed its head, Sygra nodded regally and coiled up.

_Siraka sent you?_ Rahkesh asked, the young snake nodded slowly.

_Yes. She explained her plan to me. _

_How did you get here?_

_I believe you call it a bus, no one noticed me._

_Thank you for doing this._

_No need. This creature uses his power to make people fear and hate snakes, I have seen him, he is not worthy of our allegiance. _

_Agreed. What is the plan?_

_Just as the speaker rules the humans Nagini rules his serpents. She takes care of all problems among them. If the scent of some unfamiliar snakes was planted outside it would be reported to Nagini and she would investigate before informing her master. That gets her out and away from him. There she can be attacked and captured. _

_Simple and clever, very well. When?_

_Tonight if possible. HE is away gathering more young vampires, he told his snakes they were refugees. _How interesting, Rahkesh thought, he would of course inform Andrew Farov at once, or have Moody do it. Maybe they could mess up that meeting tonight as well. And with many of the old ones gathering for a brief meeting tonight as well…what were the chances of this being a coincidence? Slim. Very slim. We they planning on having meeting then making a statement by eradicating everyone at Voldemort's gathering? Why would Cyala, Namach, and Hadrian schedule their meeting for the same night as Voldemort? There were enough spies in Voldemort's vampires that they couldn't not know. Why? Some sort of tactical advantage.

_Do you know anything about that meeting?_

_Sygra said that he was going to gather more vampires, then take them on an attack._ The snake replied. And it all clicked in Rahkesh's mind. Oh…those two ancients were _clever_. They had let Voldemort know when their meeting was, probably manipulated him into planning an attack, in order to bring the various vampiric factions to the table. And to get this war off to a violent start. Cyala and Namach might act fairly reasonable and gentle most of the time, but Rahkesh hadn't any illusions about the violent reality of the vampiric psyche. Nor about just how war-like those two in particular were. He didn't know Namach's animagus, but whatever it was it was intensely violent, more so than a thunderbird. And he knew that Namach had actually used all of the hundred plus weapons decorating the walls in his rooms and on the walls of the bloodmagic hallways outside the chambers. And Cyala Ateres had _started_ the First World War Sure she'd manipulated muggles into helping, but she had started it as revenge on some European city masters who had pissed her off. Oh this was going to be fun, Voldemort and his forces were about to get a lesson in why the oldest of vampires were so feared. And if he worked this right he might get there in time to see it.

But Nagini would come first, the opportunity was too good. Voldemort was going to be too preoccupied to come to her rescue, and Rahkesh could count on the vampires tricking Voldemort into getting as many of his supporters there as possible.

_Where?_

_Same place you dropped her off in the forest. _

_Good. Thank you again. _

_Happy to help, this is fun. Call again sometime. My name is Vesfrass. _

Rahkesh nodded and let the snake out, wandlessly summoning a mouse into the garden for him. The little snake shot off after it. Rahkesh tripped the mouse and got a hiss of thanks from the snake. Then he went inside and explained Siraka's plan to the others.

"I like it. Do you know how to do the spell?" Moody asked.

"Yes. Someone should be putting up wards, just in case. And everyone who comes ought to take a shielding potion." Rahkesh answered. Shielding potions lessened the impact of uncontrolled magic, and were commonly used when disassembling wards or enchantments. Rahkesh tapped his earring and his trunk fell out. Opening it to the potions compartment he took out three doses of the potion, tossing one each to Moody and Regulus. Regulus would accompany them in fox form; his fox senses should give then an added advantage. Rahkesh drank the third dose himself, and felt it mix in and strengthen the usual shield potion he took every week or so. His usual shield potion dampened or threw off the more subtle spells, such as spells to make him tired, angry, weak, or sick.

While the other two drank their potions and Moody taught Regulus a few emergency shielding spells Rahkesh went outside and summoned three snakes from the forest surrounding Regulus's house. They thought his request a bit bizarre but were agreeable enough and soon Rahkesh was back inside with three containers of snake scat.

They took the portkey Regulus had made to the woods. Quickly hiding their magical auras the two humans and one fox then hid their scent, sounds, even the heat their bodies gave off (Moody's idea).

Rahkesh, using a hidden steps spell on his fee tot disguise footprints, left a faint trail of the snakes scent for half a kilometer around the forest, passing it by a point where Siraka could easily pick it up to report. He transformed a rock into looking like a snake, smeared a little of one of the three scents onto it, and left it in the clearing along with all the leftovers. Getting back to Moody he settled down on a fallen tree next to the ex-auror, with a black fox on his other side, and waited.

XXXX

"This is not acceptable!"

"Neither is total slaughter!"

"Killing is more of a mercy than slavery!"

"Oh just enslave them all…heck the mortals won't be able to complain about us feeding of anyone who doesn't want or deserve it then."

"Find me a mortal society that will approve of enslaving our prisoners!"

"Parts of Africa and Asia-"

"I meant _wizarding_ society dimwit."

"Why do we _want_ their approval? Find me a reason why they deserve any sort of such respect!"

"We must not tolerate such a challenge. Show them why _we_ should be respected!"

"By torture?"

"It works."

Cyala Ateres turned an old goblet made of smoothed shined seashells connected with gold, examining the way the light glinted off the milky polished surfaces. Ignoring the shouting form most of the other ninety vampires present. Let them fight for now. She and Tristan had planned out their own strategy.

"Very nice work." She said quietly to Taiven Vachinto, who was sitting beside her. The club owner nodded agreement. He was also ignoring the chaos, his creator had trained him well and he knew that this could be left to the ancients. Besides, everyone was shouting, not talking out a plan, therefore there really was no reason to participate.

"I think they were a gift from Bashadri." He said, referring to the highly artistic Master of Madrid. "And apology I believe for one of his minions who mistook Lord Hadrian for a muggle vampire some decades back."

"Has there been any sign of further attack son either of your establishments?" Cyala asked, she had a preference for hunting at his Raven's Loft. There were always male models and porn stars to be found, and if she didn't feel like hunting them there were always corrupt businessmen and a steady stream of wealthy criminals…most of whom thought themselves to be very powerful and scary. Cyala liked showing them what actual fear was.

"No, surprisingly not. But I believe you and yours have been keeping them busy enough. The attack is indeed finished?"

"The first round. We have some forty young aurors and a dozen or so teachers."

"What will become of them?"

"I don't really know yet. Currently they are feeding my flock. Some of the more despiccable ones are in storage for the party I expect will happen later tonight." Cyala said with a nasty grin. Taiven chuckled.

Another chuckle sounded from Cyala's other side, Taiven froze and went pale before carefully placing his own glass down, his hand was shaking. He hadn't realized Tristan Namach was listening in. Cyala flicked an annoyed glance at her fellow ancient for startling the younger vampire. Tristan just smirked, and then turned back to the Master of Tokyo who was on his other side. One of the few ancients who chose to rule a city he was currently updating Tristan on how well his attempt to exterminate unauthorized muggle vampires was going.

XX

The last of the vampires finished screaming as the mark burned into his arm solidified. He dropped to the floor, shaking, and bowed from the knees, then he rose and joined his fellows. Half of those present were vampires, half were wizards, the two groups did not mix.

While any outright hostility was punished glares and insults were common. Voldemort was playing a dangerous game, trying to mix pureblood supremacists with vampires, but his authority and the danger of his anger kept everyone in line.

Voldemort looked out at his hundreds of new recruits, wizards and vampires. Many of the vampires brought to him because of his promise of mortals to feed on, many of the wizards brought to him by a promise that magical creatures and half-breeds would end. Vampires would be kept only as soldiers to serve them against their enemies. And the vampires, fleeing from the extermination they had brought upon themselves from the old ones, had no choice but to accept.

"Come now, my followers, we have business tonight with those who would oppose my rule."

XX

"The days of slavery are over!"

"Execution makes a statement, slavery asks for retaliation."

"There are few enough magical people in this world, to kill so many…"

"I will not stand by and let them think they are superior!"

"We must show them what we really are and if that means enslaving those who don't acknowledge our authority then it does!"

"When exactly do you two plan to intervene?" Taiven asked cautiously, lowering his own magical wards and mind magics as a submissive gesture should his question anger the matriarch of the assassins' clan.

"Our dearest dark lord will make an appearance soon with some of his." Cyala explained, "we will settle this once we've had our fun with him and his army."

"Ah. Dementors?"

"And wizards and young vampires."

"More fodder for the party I guess."

"Actually a few of us want to have a little fun with their souls. And Tristan needs a few for his necromancy classes." Cyala said, making Taiven shiver.

XXX

"The vampire council meets in secret, plotting to destroy everyone who does not bow to them. Well we will show them that we will not fall down, they have neither the right nor the power, and they do not know who they are opposing. Tonight we will remind them of why wizards are superior, and why all have a right to exist." The wizards cheered defeating the half-breeds, the vampires tried to ignore it, hoping for safety, and wanting their right to rule. "It is time for those relics to be overthrown!" A vast roar went up. "Summon the dementors! Let these so-called rulers of the night know true fear of the dark!"

Amidst the cheers and roars the elite were moving about, organizing their units. The battle plan was a fairly straightforward one and briefing each unit took only a few minutes. The flyers summoned their brooms to them and headed for the roof. Ground assault teams went over a quick review of positions.

Color-coordinating badges were handed out and stripes down robes sleeves were dyed to match. Blue teams would stay behind to take prisoners to the cells. Purple teams would transport vampires from the attack site to the prison. Orange teams would gather incapacitated vampires from the battlefield and bring them to the purple tams. Green, red, and silver teams were attacking on the ground, red teams responsible for setting up shields after the first strike to catch the first counter attack, while silver and green attacked first, then dropped back behind the shields before continuing. The immediate reaction would be dangerous, but once it was over all three teams would begin attacking again. Teams with two stripes would stay in parts of the building already secured to keep them, while teams with one or three stripes would drive the attack forward. The ones with all black robes were the broom units.

XXXX

Siraka slipped into the snakes den in Voldemort's fortress. Three other snakes noted her passing and hissed greetings; Siraka returned the greetings and said she had a report.

_Nagini is in the master's rooms._ Haszahka told her, a large timber rattlesnake given to Voldemort as a peace gift by pureblood supremacists fleeing the United States, Haszahka wasn't too bright and was more concerned with her current pregnancy than anything else.

The other two might be more troublesome should they catch on, the asp viper was an old fellow, Xasseri, and he was very fast – mentally and physically. The last was very young and not at all poisonous, a newcomer who had been taught to stay out of Siraka's way - he was still healing from the fang wounds and while angry at her was not too likely to try to follow her around.

_Thanksss, how's your skin coming?_ Siraka asked. Haszahka had the misfortune to be close to the end of her pregnancy and being about to start shedding, not a comfortable combination.

_Slowly._ Haszhka replied, and returned to her nap. Xasseri sniffed the air, and then followed Siraka out of the dens.

_You smell like unknown snakes?_

_My report. Three of them nearby_. Siraka said with a sigh. _I doubt they're anything to be worried over. I really wish we didn't have to report it every time a pet shop burned down._ Xasseri chuckled, an irreverent old fellow he was unlikely to turn her in for complaining. He was barely respectful even to Voldemort, the dark lord tolerated it because he was smart and good at organizing the younger snakes…Nagini had a tendency to just eat them.

_Nagini? I have a report, three unknown snakes near the border._ Siraka hissed as she curled up over the back of the cushions Nagini was lying on. Xasseri slipped around to the side. He seemed intent on tagging along. Siraka hid her displeasure. He would be difficult…but she had never had indication that he was actually loyal anyway. Perhaps he disagreed with Voldemort and would welcome an escape? Rahkesh was not likely to turn him away…

_I can smell them._ Nagini replied shortly, flickering her tongue in and out. _Where?_

_The edge of the rocks near the old shed, the trail is fairly fresh._

_Sssssss. Different snakes, different ages…even different species…you didn't mention that._ Nagini hissed, sounding superior and annoyed. Siraka resisted the urge to rolled her eyes.

_That is why I report it._ She replied dryly. Nagini's eyes narrowed and she hissed. Uncoiling her bulk from the cushions and making sure Siraka got an idea of their size difference, Nagini headed for the exit. Siraka followed her out, Xasseri behind her.

_What does the human say? Bitch?_ The old snake hissed very softly once Nagini was a good distance ahead.

XXXX

"Truly I think Voldemort hasn't actually decided what he's doing yet. He won't declare for the vampires and vampiric rights because that would alienate his pureblood base and most potential mortal recruits, and himself. But he won't totally declare for only purebloods and exterminate al others because he needs vampires. He's doing a dangerous balancing act." Cyala said.

"Well apparently he makes a distinction between vampires who were magical and those who were muggle." Taiven told her.

"Oh?"

"Yes, Farov and Kylara's spies say that he wants the magical ones to command vampire attack units to control his territories. The threat of well-trained magical vampires should keep everyone in line. However the nonmagical ones don't seem to have much of a role yet. He may be planning to phase them out entirely."

"He doesn't know how many of them there are then." Cyala said with a chuckle. "And there are enough that exterminating them would be nigh impossible for him. We're having a hard enough time of it."

XX

They had been waiting for a little less than an hour when Siraka led Nagini along the trail and into the trap.

Rahkesh heard the snakes first, Siraka was laughing, louder than was necessary, in parseltongue. He'd activated all of his hearing improving bloodmagic and used hearing spells, the glow from the bloodmagic runes hidden by a hood. The combination made his ears very sensitive. He reached out tentatively and felt Moody's mind respond. He's wasn't good at this, hadn't practiced the actual communication at all really, but he manage dot get across that there were three snakes. Moody frowned, and then shrugged. Rahkesh held up three fingers for Regulus to see, and pointed to the trail of snake scent.

It was dark, they were well hidden. They didn't know if Nagini could sense magic, but they had cloaked themselves as completely as possible. The only way they would be discovered would be if Nagini had some enchantments from Voldemort that could penetrate their disguises. But Moody had done a good portion of the spell work, and the stuff he'd done was probably taught only at Akren, Voldemort was unlikely to have discovered the exact spells anywhere else.

Whoever the third snake was he – Rahkesh was fairly sure it was a he – must be telling jokes, though Rahkesh couldn't make out the words. Siraka continued to be loud, alerting them to their progress.

Rahkesh had instructed Siraka that they needed to know where Nagini was at all times, so Siraka was currently asking Nagini if she found the joke funny. Nagini hissed a reply. She was a yard or so ahead, the other two traveling beside her. Siraka would probably start dropping back a bit soon, so she didn't get caught in any magics. She would have to take care of whoever the other snake was. Rahkesh juts hoped she could do it far enough away that the backlash he expected from destroying the horcrux wouldn't catch her.

Nagini finally appeared, still to far away – distance would give her enough time to dodge – but getting closer. She truly was a huge serpent; easily six meters long. Rahkesh thought she'd grown even more since he'd seen her last. Siraka had now dropped back near Nagini's long tail, another snake beside her. She was keeping him distracted by asking where he'd learned whatever joke he'd been telling.

XXX

Clouds summoned in by Voldemort hid the fliers as they soared over towns. In precise units flight after flight of airborne wizards and vampires.

Soon another presence made itself known, soaring down to fall in behind and around the fighters. Dementors, hundreds of them. The air went cold, but the dementors held back their full powers, they had been restrained from harming Voldemort's people.

On the ground groups gathered at portkey points. The portkeys had been painstakingly crafted by the best of Voldemort's servants and dipped in potions so that they could slip past the wards.

Voldemort apparated to just beyond the wards, smiling as he watched his people pass, sensing the magics of the portkeys. His agents within Hadrian's servants had assured him that the blood drunk that night was drugged, and the wards shifted sideways, enough distortion to making reading them appear fine, when in fact they were not.

XXX

From a short distance away three of those agents watched the dark wizard, he finally smiled and nodded his snake-like head. The older of the two vampires, and therefore the leader, picked up his cell phone and placed a call to Lord Hadrian.

Voldemort was too confident, and all three vampires were Akren graduates with master status at mind magics. Their false memories and thoughts had made them appear loyal, and Voldemort had _wanted _to believe that they were, and so he'd never noticed their plotting.

The guards on duty that night outside Lord Hadrian's smaller mansion where the gathering was taking place were not actually guards. They were captives, held under the imperius curse by Kylara.

Being young witches and wizards who thought being a vampire would be "cool" they had been turned late in life and as a result were not properly trained, and their transformation had not been approved by Lord Hadrian. Finally realizing that the "coolness" of feeding on blood only lasted until number got too high and the parties too wild and the old ones stepped in they had been forced to turn to Voldemort for help, and had been easily captured in an early round up. They had little more education than the average witch or wizard. Their vampiric senses helped, but they could do little. Their minds were weak, and Kylara, half-sister to Cyala Ateres, was very strong.

She had had little difficulty forcing them into compliance with their roles for the night. She had even promised a possible freedom to make their compliance and fight more genuine. A promise that obviously would never be carried through…the guards would be killed by Voldemort's forces, giving them a sense of security in killing some of Hadrians' "guards" so easily.

The three double agents waited until Voldemort apparated again, then the third vampire traced his movement. Though very skilled at hiding his apparition Voldemort wasn't really trying right then. And Sierra Ateres had been trained specifically for spy work and assassination at Akren and by the best of the infamous Ateres assassins.

"He's on the front lawn." Sierra said, becoming invisible and floating skywards to follow through the trees. "He's got some sort of device…its magics say it's a portkey activator, and the magics are parseltongue."

"Summoning his serpents, alert the other teams." Cyala Ateres spoke into the tiny transmitter attached to the collar of her robes. Sierra sent out the signal, in Morse code, to Hadrian's teams and the rest of her family.

"I wish we had Rahkesh around." Sierra muttered into the communicator.

"Eventually, I haven't given up on that one yet. He's too good to waste as a mortal human."

"And far too good looking." Sierra chuckled into the phone, "I'm switching to the enchanted radio."

The radio attached to the collar of her battle armor – Kevlar, bloodmetal, and magical fabric – whirred softly to life and went silent. Alert by a quick pulse of magic the communicators worn by the rest of the teams switched on, as did the matching ear pieces.

Two of the more tech-oriented of the Ateres family with several PhDs from elite muggle universities had designed them. Using mundane chemicals to absorb and hide the enchantments that they used in place of actual radio signals and using bloodmetal and bloodmagic work engraved into the metal casings to hide all magical traces and electronic signatures.

XXX

Sitting at the table, chin on fist, watching the various sides argue, the Master of London felt a slight tingle at the edge of the wards. He released them, and let the attackers through. Most of the wards had been "down for repairs" anyway. Repairs Voldemort had been quietly informed of by a "spy", who in fact happened to be one of Cyala's brood, her granddaughter Sierra.

A few slight twitches from certain individuals said that others had noticed what was happening, but telepathic messages from Cyala and Tristan silenced them.

Andrew Farov and Ambrosius finished preparing the illusions that wrapped the buildings. Better to let Voldemort's followers think their first attack actually did some damage. The illusions would make sound and shake and appear to fall apart. The actual buildings would be easily able to withstand the attack.

Lord Hadrian felt a touch on his mind, and lowered his defenses. Tristan was generally the most polite of the ancients, he could easily get into almost any vampire's mind without them noticing, but he stuck to more polite methods. The ancient vampire was confident enough in his power and authority that intimidation and aggression weren't actually needed on daily basis. Though he did nothing to hide his power once inside your mind, and Hadrian fought the urge to cringe and whimper. Tristan didn't both much with holding back his power at meetings with other influential vampires. They weren't likely to collapse from a brief glimpse of it, and it made sure everyone remembered who was actually in charge. If anyone expressed any discomfort he would probably draw back a little, depending on his mood, but Hadrian wasn't going to admit that Tristan's telepathic presence felt like an the radiation of a continuous atomic explosion. That would be verbally admitting the vast power difference. Which was never spoken of, just sensed.

- You did remove all the prisoners from the cells correct? -

- Except for the poisoned ones. – _That_ was a nifty plan crafted by Tristan and the Master of Moscow, who was another ancient who ruled a city, and a good part of Russia. Getting those two plotting together was almost worse than getting Cyala and Tristan working together. They had revived some old magics that had been purposefully forgotten centuries ago because of how destructive they were. The poisoned imprisoned death eaters would be brought to Voldemort and his fortress, where the poison would activate when in close proximity to an odorless, colorless chemical rubbed into the walls by the double agents. The poison would vaporize their bodies, using their magic, life force, and even their souls, to create a "death cloud" that would kill any mortal, even a werewolf or fae, and shred the soul, body, and life-magics of any vampire. The vampires would then die a slow death as their bodies deteriorated when the magics that allowed them to live on blood no longer worked. It not only harmed the soul and physical body, but blocked their ability to draw energy, magic, and life from blood. It would also break into dementors and temporarily block their soul feeding while systematically attacking their magics and the souls that they had taken.

The "death cloud" had originally been invented by Cyala Ateres and Tristan Namach during a past extermination of young vampires. They'd used mortal criminals to kill off thousands of young vampires during the Black Death's rampage through Europe, when the young vampires had hugely overpopulated and the mortals were all dying off. There had been too many vampires, not enough healthy prey, and the recently turned vampires turning their former friends and family to save them. The City Masters, the old ones, and the ancients had been forced to step in and cull one and quarter million vampires. All of them mortals who had turned vampires to escape the plague, and for power in the vampire gangs that ranged the desolated cities and countryside, picking up great wealth from dead mortals.

"Death clouds" had been invented and used to completely clear the cities, slightly different then they'd been designed to not harm mortals. Just the vampires and the loose, also overpopulating, dementors, who had been having a great time with the misery and unguarded souls.

- Do you think he will notice? - Hadrian asked.

- No. Not until it's too late. – Tristan replied. Both vampires felt a third presence, and then Cyala joined the connection.

- My daughter reports at least five hundred dementors. And teams of werewolves forced into a transformation by potions. -

- Really? I had not thought his forces would be so large. This will be a real battle then. – Tristan did not seem at all upset at the prospect. – I haven't seen a good blood bath in a while. Nor a good fight. Perhaps between numbers and however powerful this mortal actually is, we might even have a decent opponent. – unlike other vampires Tristan did not underestimate anyone because they happened to be mortal, nasty surprises were not good during a war.

- Remember, nothing to harm the city or anyone nearby. Anything we do must be held in check. – Cyala reminded, that, unfortunately, would severely limit what they could do. All three were capable of causing directed earth quakes and tornadoes and hail storms, and fire storms, but ti all had to be hidden from the muggles. And from the Ministry – they didn't need them getting involved tonight.

- How big is the property? – Tristan asked Hadrian.

- Six hundred square kilometers. – Hadrian replied. His land was mostly removed from the world, larger inside than outside, but the border were knit into actual muggle space and many spells or things they might create could overflow.

- Big enough to transform. – Tristan purred happily. Hadrian choked on the blood he was drinking. Tristan meant to use his animagus?

- Only if he does. Voldemort is a parseltongue. His form is undoubtedly a basilisk. And he's over fifty and quite powerful so it'll be large. It's been nearly eight hundred years since I got into a fight with a basilisk. – The ancient replied.

- Hmm, animagus forms…that could liven things up a bit. – Cyala agreed. What _her _form(s) were Hadrian didn't actually know. It had been so long since anyone had seen them and anyone who knew surely wasn't saying.

XXX

"ATTACK!" The commander roared. Hundreds of black robed figures snapped into existence in units all across the lawn in front of the mansion. Lifting their wands the entire army called on a single spell.

"REDUCTO INTERITUS" From the ground hundreds of beams of light shot towards the mansion, from the air hundreds more followed.

The wards held, then snapped and dissolved away with crackling waves of magic. Standing in the center of his troops Voldemort raised both arms, wand held horizontally between them, and called up his spell, minor bloodmagic caused both his hands to bleed, mixing his blood into it. Bringing the wand down while turning it between both palms to point at the mansion he bellowed an incantation.

"ERADICARUM STRUCTURAE!" The air rippled as a massive wave of light and power roared into being and flung itself at the mansion.

The illusions vanished, Voldemort grinned as the spell sunk into the building and soared around the outside until it encased the entire mansion, then it sunk in seeking the center.

As the spell sunk in death eaters appeared carrying fifty prisoners. Voldemort held out a hand as his death eaters cut the living heart out of each prisoner. When they touched his palm the hearts vanished and bright glow of black and silver light began to grow instead. When all fifty hearts had been collected the bodies were removed, Voldemort raised his wand and with a sharp motion activated the spell already on the building.

XXX

Inside all the vampires went silent as the earth shook and the destructive power of the magic used rocked through the room. Silverware shattered or melted, paintings on the walls disintegrated.

"What was that?" Someone shouted when it finally passed, leaving the tables and chairs in ruins.

Whoever that was would be embarrassed by the fear in his voice later, Cyala thought.

"He's good, he's very good." Hadrian admitted. "That was an old spell." The Master of London seemed surprisingly unconcerned about the damage to his mansion. They had planned for this as well if Voldemort managed it.

"SILENCE!" Tristan barked into the crowded room. "That would be Voldemort, launching an attack." The vampires waited, "we'll let him think he's done some damage."

Hadrian nodded, "I have two reserve sets of enchantments ready, let him destroy the mansion, it will only make the end defeat worse for him." Now he was getting confused looks, how would a destroyed mansion be bad for _Voldemort? _The oldest traded amused looks. The others had apparently never heard of the enchantments Hadrian was talking about.

"After the battle." Cyala said quickly when someone began to ask a question. "Shields." Immediately shields appeared around everyone. "Let him think he's hit us."

"Guards are all dead." Kylara reported, "good thing they weren't actual guards." She chuckled.

XX

Voldemort raised the glowing magic ripped from the dying hearts of the witches and wizards whose lives he had just ended. Death magics were necessarily destructive when the death was a murder. And if you could harness the power the destructive magics could become a terrible weapon.

"OBLITERATUM!" he roared, hurling the magic across the field. Powered by magics the ball of glowing death and destruction hurtled into the side of the building. "Shields!" The death eaters with red stripes raised their wands and created a massive connected shield, while all others created individual back up shields.

Lord Hadrian's manor exploded.

Massive blocks of stone and marble shattered into sharp edges fragments and flew everywhere. Pieces of wood from furniture and fire from candles and fireplaces leaped out of the destruction. Dust and ash and rocks hurtled upwards, and then fell towards the earth, raining down on the crumbled ruins of the mansion and the army outside it. Moving with amazing speed the shreds of the building blasted across the lawn and impacted the glowing shield creating showers of sparks and gravel as the pieces were crushed by the shield magics into harmless chips or rock.

In the air the fliers had their own shields, but they had misjudged how fast and how hard the explosion would hit. The force of the explosion knocked several off their brooms. Unsteady already many shields didn't hold against the onslaught of broken rocks and furniture and cracked chunks of walls and floors and ceiling tiles and tower stones and clay gutter bits rising towards them. It was also true that they had practiced shields at things thrown at them, not stuff from below.

Brooms snapped like twigs and sparked off magics, fliers tried to catch each other and lost concentration. Blasting spells did little to help and the air born brigades were borne upwards by the massive tide of fast-moving material flying up from below. Legs were crushed against rising rocks and brooms hurtled out of control. A wash of color showed the magics they tried to use to stop their explosion-driven ascent and to stop the wave of debris from colliding with them.

Not hearing the screams from above those on the ground were shocked when the bodies started falling. But then they had more important things to worry about – a moment's loss of concentrations and energy on shielding meant death Massive boulders from the foundations and chunks of thick rock walls and stone columns bounced across the shields.

Finally one massive piece of marble staircase found a weak spot and fell through. The large shield snapped.

The rain of gravel turned into a torrent of truck and car sized hunks of debris. Screams rang out as those who had created the large shield were caught without protection and crushed to death. Other individual shields couldn't take the hits and cracked. Black robed people fell to the ground trying to cover themselves. Some attempted to blast everything away, but the amount of material raining down on them was too much and soon they were flattened and smothered.

Finally the shattered charred remains of the mansion fell to earth and settled, some rolling over fleeing witches and wizards as they did. The air was filled with dust and smoke and a fine mist of smaller pieces. Stepping through it all Voldemort laughed. Oh those haughty vampires and their talk of superiority, telling him he wasn't good enough, refusing to bow to him! Where were they now? Still laughing he waved a hand, rolling debris off what remained of his people.

They had practiced shield spells for days and most were okay, simply covered by rock fragments, their shields intact and keeping them safe. As unit leaders gathered them back into attack formations and the lead units ran forward Voldemort laughed again and summoned Nagini, she deserved to be here to see his victory.

XX

Nagini was right in front of them. Rahkesh nodded to Moody the auror leaped to a safe distance as Rahkesh stood and pointed his wand.

Nagini sensed them and dodged.

_Adssvadssrass Kedavssrass!"_ Rahkesh hissed, Nagini rolled and the spell missed, blasting a crater into the ground. Then Nagini began to glow.

"He's moving her away!" Moody roared, Regulus leaped in and bit down on the snake, trying to hold her still. Moody shouted a restraining spell and Rahkesh tried again. His and Moody's spells hit at the same time Nagini vanished. Their magics connected, and Regulus physically connected, all three were dragged along as Voldemort summoned the serpent.

They landed in the middle of the worst blast zone Rahkesh had ever seen. He landed on the shredded remains of a sofa and desk, sharp slivers of wood digging deep into his back and arm.

Somewhere to his right heard Regulus's yelp of pain and Moody's grunt.

The place was a ruin. Dust was rising from the layer of rock and trash that covered the ground.

Nagini was alive…but injured. Moody's spell had stopped her from being summoned directly to Voldemort. She had landed on what might have been a stove, and a sharp spike on thin metal had gone through her. Shallow it wouldn't kill her, but getting off would be hard and movement difficult.

Rahkesh head spun as he tried to rise, and blood ran down his back from his head and the cuts from the wood. He checked Sygra, and found her around his neck, shaking from the transportation. It had not been an easy ride. Besides being parseltongue magic their presence had messed it up, though Rahkesh doubted Voldemort had noticed.

His killing curse seemed to have been flung about and finally absorbed into the energy that had moved them, or lost along the way. Rahkesh spared a faint hope that no one had been killed by it.

"Where are we?"

"I know the location…this was one of Lord Hadrian's manors…what on earth happened here?" Moody said softly as he pulled himself up by his staff. "Merlin's beard…it's been destroyed.

"Voldemort." Rahkesh said, spotting him at once. The tall figure in black and green and silver was standing atop a massive boulder. "And his army." Peoples were moving among the debris towards the foundations of the manor.

"YOU SEE? YOU SEE? THE GREAT LORDS OF THE VAMPIRES BROUGHT DOWN AND CRUSHED!" Voldemort shouted gleefully. Rahkesh gasped and looked around, surely not? Moody clumped over beside him and looked around; the old auror looked to be nearly in shock, his horror plain.

Voldemort gave a wild laugh and summoned his followers with a cry of "Onwards! Find any survivors! Kill them, and bring back those they have taken from us!"

His army, now mostly on its feet, cheered and roared. The young vampires raising their fists in victory and the purebloods giving great victory cries.

Then the ground beneath the center of the sea of destruction began to glow, and to shake.

Then the remains of the once proud manor opened up and glowing figures rose out of them, surrounded by magics and levitating through the air.

When the glow dimmed the vampires landed, and Voldemort stopped dead, staring in shock, as he found himself face to face with nearly a hundred very powerful very angry vampires.

Tristan Namach strode forward, while Cyala Ateres sent out telepathic coordination signals to the vampires. The vampires moved into position, memorizing the altered landscape and their instructions. The wave of power that flooded the property as the vampires lowered all shields sent the army of young vampires to their knees, screaming, shaking and crying in terror. The witches and wizards stumbled and gasped desperately for breath, dropping their wands as they grabbed at their heads and shook like leaves in a gale. The waves of Dementors, only juts appearing, shuddered and backed away, shrieking and jerking about in fear and uncertainty.

The wind picked up, blowing swirling clouds of ash and dust, lifting billowing cloaks and capes as the vampires clothing transformed into impressive battle gear. Through it all Namach's voice boomed out with all the intensity of an angry king.

"I say!" The ancient roared his voice deadly "red eyed weakling mortal spawn of a diseased prostitute!" Voldemort just gaped. "Yes! You!" Namach barked, "Are you that raving loon and deluded whoreson who calls himself Voldemort!"

-

Tada! Over 11,000 words. In one day.

-

Sorry for the very long wait. End of the year work, ack, and exams coming soon.

-

Another round of applause of Eirame who has taken on the challenge of translating this into French.

-

Just to give everyone a fair warning, I'll be leaving in a few weeks to spend the entire summer out in the woods with no internet connection. I will start updating as soon as I return but from mid May to mid July there won't be any updates. Sorry, when you do the work I do you're out in the field for months. I will try to update again before that. I want to finish the battle as much as you do. But the work load might not allow it. I can only say I'll try.

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I am NOT, repeat NOT, abandoning this. Just going away for a while. I have much of the next year at Akren planned, along with the ends of the horcruxes, resolving Daray's troubles, Voldemorts' demise, and the plot after that (big scale plot, probably several fics worth). I don't think this is even halfway over yet.

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Please review! I hope it didn't get too confusing near the end there. Kinda wild, hope you liked the action.


	35. Chapter 35

I'm back! Sorry for the wait, work is work and mine takes me away from civilization occasionally.

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Please read the note at the end of the chapter.

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Chapter 35

"CRUCIO!"

"Oh how unoriginal." Rahkesh muttered as Voldemort's spell flew at Namach, who sidestepped it.

"A bit useless too, vampires from his time, they were trained to deal with worse pain than that." A voice said from the shadows. Rahkesh, Moody, and Regulus the fox turned around. Both Rahkesh and Moody had their wands out already but they had drawn other weapons – knives and tasers – as well. Lightning crackled briefly near the ground and a strange glow lit the air around Moody. Then they both stilled when they recognized the Akren signal – it was four werewolves. A slightly apologetic feeling zipped across following the signal, followed by a brief feeling of peace, and everyone relaxed a bit. Regulus looked up to the two humans, Moody gave him a quick sign with his hand, these weren't enemies. Daniel smiled at Rahkesh and nodded, he was standing behind the shoulder of a grey-haired extremely well-muscled woman who wasn't much taller than Molly Weasely. Rahkesh glanced at the other two, both males, one standing behind Daniel the other behind the woman's other shoulder. Rahkesh checked the air around her magically and caught the aura of an alpha werewolf.

Rahkesh and Moody gave their names magically, silently, the female werewolf replied with her name, Relora, and the names of the other two males, Maxwell and Geoff.

"We felt the destructive magics, figured we should stop by and see what was happening, Lord Hadrian is a…ally, after all." Relora said with a slight grimace at calling a vampire an ally.

"Same here" Moody grunted. "Didn't know Voldemort knew how to do that."

While Namach stepped aside for another cruciatus curse the vampires behind him formed into groups. A dozen of them formed a circle and began a spell Rahkesh couldn't hear and didn't recognize, a red glow began to form around them. Cyala detached from the vampires followed by four others from her clan. Rahkesh recognized Daray's parents, Elara and Sabien Ateres, from Daray's descriptions. Elara was a super-model beautiful red head while Sabien was a huge black vampire built like a bulldozer. Sabien was even taller than Namach and twice as broad in the shoulders with not the slightest wisp of hair. He looked like he ought to be a professional wrestler.

A chill sank into Rahkesh mind, and he blocked it out while readying himself, Dementors, in huge numbers. Voldemort's high pitched laugh made him wince. The dark lord glanced back at the swarms drifting down from around the clouds and laughed again as the vampires looked up.

The vampires had also spotted the Dementors. They seemed to be feeling the effects even worse than Rahkesh was, he could see some of what he assumed were the younger ones, gasping and shivering. Then they began casting patronuses. Clouds of silvery creatures, most of them fully corporeal, charged at the black mass at the edge of the field.

"Avis Patronis!" Namach barked, followed by Cyala doing the same spell. Patroni birds flew in flocks from their wands, big Simurgs glittering with white, gold, and silvery jewels from Namach, nearly a dozen. The simurg patroni hit the Dementors clawing and screaming audibly. From Cyala came a score or so of lyras, silver and gold winged leopards. They were reinforced in a few seconds by smaller flocks of patroni from other vampires, winged dear, runespores, lions, several bats, eagles, falcons, sleipnirs, flamingos, Tasmanian devils, kangaroos, ostriches, hydras, and even a herd of minotaurs.

Voldemort glared as his Dementors were rounded up into a tight group, patroni on all sides, and then attacked viciously. Once the patroni had them secured four new patroni were added, and these ones were different. These patorni were glowing with gold light. A simurg from Namach and a lyra from Cyala, followed by a bat and an eagle. The gold patroni hit the Dementors, and the Dementors began to scream. Horrible agonized sounds that quickly forced Rahkesh to turn off his hearing bloodmagics. He didn't know what that stage of the patronus spell was, but given that Cyala's bloodmagics were glowing on her skin in spider-silk thin gold runes he guessed it was an advanced form of the spell involving bloodmagic.

Red curses and green killing curses flew across the battlefield in a wave of light. The vampires dodged the killing curses and reflected whatever the red ones were back at the death eaters.

The broom brigade swooped down from above, having regrouped. They flew straight down at the vampires firing off curses as fast as they could. Vampires on the ground ducked and dodged or created shields. Some of them began returning fire with broom snapping spells and skull crushing curses.

The red glow surrounding the twelve vampires began to rise into the air, then a thirteenth vampire began creating waves of fire and the spell took shape, morphing into a whirling cyclone of flames that spun off towards the death eaters. The air became heated and the roar of the inferno blocked out all other sounds as it rolled towards the scattering death eaters, turning the sky a brilliant orange. It fed on magic, pulling in the magic and the bodies of anything close enough to it, great whips of flames lashing out towards running black robed death eaters, curling around and pulling them back into it, dragging their magic out and using it to spawn smaller fire storms. Rahkesh had never seen anything like it, spinning tornadoes of fiery death that ate magic and flesh, yet not harming the rubble strewn across the field. They swirled around, growing as they consumed, leaving only bits of ashes floating in the air and the sizzling agony screaming across his telepathic senses from the magic that had been wrenched from the souls of dying. Soon half a dozen of the spinning fire cyclones were whirling around behind the death eaters.

Spells were flying everywhere now, most of the visible ones from the death eaters. The often invisible ones from the vampires could only be felt. Death eaters collapsed with their intestines sliding out while eyeballs melted out of sockets and limbs exploded.

Nearby one vampire went down with a scream, a stake standing out of his chest, the point sticking out his back. Whoever had used that staking spell had excellent aim. If the stake was removed immediately and the wound healed he would live. Two vampires jumped to the rescue just as death eaters pounced at the fallen vampires. The attacking vampires acted at once; one grabbing their fallen comrade while the other raised both hands, neither with a wand, and began tying knots with a piece of string, his fingers a blur. The death eaters collapsed seconds before they finished whatever spell they had been attempting, and flopped down as the fourth knot was tied, and bean to convulse like fish out of water on the sixth. By the eighth knot they were dead. Rahkesh sighed enviously, how he wanted to learn thread magic!

Voldemort was creating more spells, holding two of the flaming tornados at bay with one hand, while trying to rip the patroni away from his suffering Dementors with the other. The patroni were beginning to falter under the lashes of black magic zipping around them, and when Voldemort stepped it up a bit the weaker patroni were engulfed with black clouds and vanished. The stronger ones rushed forward but the Dementors were already taking off.

Looking around the rubble-strewn battlefield Rahkesh caught sight of Namach sending out unrecognizable spells that first froze the death eaters they hit, and then shattered them into tiny pieces, seven or eight going down with each spell. He was watching Voldemort, waiting for the next big attack.

The fire cyclones were gaining power from those they killed and now were ripping into the fliers. Buffeting them about with heated waves of air and sucking them and their magic in. The vampires on the ground were now hurling fireballs upwards, and every broomtail that flamed was quickly located and caught by the fire cyclones. They seemed to feel out the flaming broomsticks and fire tentacles reaching out from the center of the vortexes in long waves picked out the flaming brooms and their riders.

Down below the twelve vampires who had created the fire cyclones were wrapped in an impenetrable red haze. Rahkesh realized that they were helpless against outside attacks, too concentrated on their six fire cyclones. Other vampires moved in to stop all the spells headed for them. Some began using thread magic to create shields around their immobile unaware comrades while others deflected curses.

Rahkesh turned back to Cyala and watched as she closed her eyes and shivered, and began to transform. Enormous black wings with a red shine to them arched out from her back while her eyes snapped open to reveal a glowing bright red. Claws sprung from her hands and feet.

"Figures." Moody said, "that that one would be a dark angel."

"It _is _fitting." Rahkesh agreed.

As her transformation completed Cyala snapped out a commands, and her clothing began to change, turning into a swirling mass of magic before settling into armor. Black metal armor decorated with gold that, for all it appeared immovable and skin-tight, did not hinder her as she bent around to check each of the weapons that had appeared.

The Ateres crest, a dark red and silver dark angel in a ring of gold fire with a diamond and gold star above and a ruby blood drop below, a sword to one side and a razor whip to the other appeared on her armor. One crest on both shoulders, another larger one across her back, crests her boots and on the sheaths of her weapons. Satisfied that all her weapons were in order Cyala tapped her throat, and each arm guard with one glowing finger. Long tendrils of bloodmetal appeared, black metal with red and gold sparks in it. The bloodmetal wrapped itself into blood runes, connected like a necklace around her neck, and sank into the armguards. Briefly the bloodmetal glowed then went dark. Enlarged slitting nostrils flared and flames billowed out. Cyala arched her back and raised her wings.

Dark flames burst into being around her body, covering her wings and body. The fire leaped out from her wingtips a good three meters and trailed off her back like a tail or long whip. She leaped skyward with an unearthly roar and flew at the death eaters, the fire extending until her physical body was invisible beneath a layer of flames. Fire shot from her mouth and hands, setting light to the young vampires fleeing before her. Her wings beat across their heads, incinerating their skulls wherever it touched.

Behind her the other four of her clan were also transforming, also into dark angels. Sabien and Elara took to the air in massive bursts of flame and leaped into the fire cyclones, sailing upwards on the heated air, to attack the death eaters on broomsticks. The other two followed Cyala into the death eater army and went after the young vampires. Since the vampires and humans and Dementors didn't mingle much it was easy to pick out a crowd of young terrified vampires and drop into the center of the group, then to unfold their enormous fire encased wings and roast them all. Vampire flesh burned much more readily than human flesh did.

Rahkesh eyed the dark angels as they fished through the enemies, turning attacking vampires to piles of ash. Okay, so maybe there was a reason why Daray's demon form hadn't been considered too odd. The dark angel animagus must be transmitted through Cyala's bloodline…though it was doubtful that _her _creator had had it. She must have found a way to pass it on by blood, some form of bloodmagic, though Rahkesh had never heard of anything so advanced. It should be impossible, what worked for one did not work for all, the form should have been rejected by anyone else's body…perhaps it was contained through Cyala's existence. Exposure to the magics of their creator allowing the others to keep the form until it became part of them.

The battle shifted again, and death eaters and vampires were suddenly running towards the little group, hurling spells at each other. The werewolves leaped out of the way and ducked down behind some large pieces of marble that had once been a column in the entrance hall. Moody dropped and rolled down beside them while Regulus jumped down in between the splintered remains of a section of ceiling.

Rahkesh turned searched for Nagini, the massive serpent was still stuck where she'd landed, hissing and twisting.

Spells flew past his head, Rahkesh ducked, a sudden explosion flattened him to the ground and he heard the zing of bits of metal around him. Grenades?

The fight was fully around him now, and the space between him and Nagini would be impossible to cover. The air was heating up and growing bright behind his eyelids, Rahkesh opened his eyes and rolled over.

One of the fire cyclones was spinning towards him; he flipped around and looked back at Nagini just as the first waves of fire lashed between them.

"Rahkesh!" Moody barked, Rahkesh dove for the open space behind the marble column. Nagini would have to wait.

"Damn it, I just want that damn snake." He grouched, "then we can get out of here." A dark angel swooped over head and Maxwell gasped and bit into his fist to keep from screaming as a wave of fire burned his shoe off, and charred part of his foot.

"Once there's a break -" An abrupt silence stopped Moody mid-reply. The werewolves, minus Maxwell, leaped on top of the fallen marble column and the two humans and fox followed.

Inferi, and army of them, was marching around the few remaining trees at the edge of the former manor lawn and up the hill towards them.

Voldemort took a brief head count of his inferi then turned triumphantly towards the vampires, who had regrouped. The handful controlling the fire tornados and their guards reeled back their spells until the firestorms lifted from the ground and spun in the air behind the vampires, effectively shielding their backs. The vampires had drawn back, falling behind their leaders, leaving Hadrian Master of London, Tristan Namach, and a handful of others in front. Where they had left Rahkesh picked out a few dead vampires on the ground. With the magics sustaining them gone along with their lives they were easy to spot – they were rotting unnaturally fast, disappearing as the bodies literally crumbled in dust. So this battle would not be without vampire casualties. Then Rahkesh remembered hearing Cyala and Namach discussing having to kill off a few of the radicals to get the vampires together and cooperating. So perhaps these ones had been killed off by the ancients under the cover of the battle?

From within the packed vampires howls began to sound. Howls of a sort Rahkesh had never heard and given the puzzeled looks from the werewolves they couldn't identify them either. Probably canine the howls sounded like the mix of a wolf and a roaring lion, but there was something in them that reminded Rahkesh sharply of demons.

"Ah, of course, Hellhounds." Moody grunted approvingly. "Every city master has a few and they protect their pack bloodlines as life-or-death family secrets; Lord Hadrian has bred his own bloodline of them for centuries."

"This isn't what it seems, "Relora warned, "There's some trick here, there's something odd about those vampires."

Rahkesh glanced upwards as an odd scent caught his nostrils. There were dark angels above, a dozen of them. The scent would be the charred bodies of the remnants of Voldemort's now demolished air force dripping from their claws. The Ateres family was not one of the huge vampire bloodlines, the dozen dark angels was probably the whole of the Ateres force in Europe, minus any too young to transform yet.

"I am not without mercy." Voldemort called out across the rubble and bodies. "There is still time to surrender."

The inferi were at the top of the hill, arrayed out behind Voldemort and his death eaters and Dementors…though there seemed to be rather less of the Dementors than there had been. _Could they be destroyed?_ Rahkesh wondered. He hadn't been watching the Dementors that closely, had those bloodmagic-fueled patroni somehow destroyed some of them?

The vampires behind Namach vanished into wisps of air, illusions. A wild war cry came from amongst the death eaters as scores of vampires appeared from thin air sending out a vast cloud of killing curses.

"Told you." Relora muttered.

Voldemort screamed in rage as almost all of his remaining death eaters died in seconds, not fast enough to find cover in time. The vampires rotated as one towards the inferi, weapons coated with magical fire appeared in their hands. The inferi charged. The vampires waited for the inferi to come to them, then moved in with amazing speed, wielding their weapons with smooth deadly efficiency. The magical flames followed the weapons through the animated corpses, burning them to ash and shattering the magics upon them.

A thunderous crashing and crackling turned Voldemort's attention back to the ancient vampire facing him across the field.

Namach's hands were out, moving in slow motions, bloodmagic sparked over his arms and face in delicate gold lines and a glow began to build around him. It was not a bright glow, but a dark one. Drinking in light and giving off none, but for his shining eyes. The ground shuddered and bucked and rippled and from beneath their feet came the sounds of breaking rock and grinding and tearing, groans from the depths of the earth as masses of soil and rock twitched.

The ground trembled once more, then with a wrenching noise loud enough to make the watchers cover their ears it ripped open. A gaping wound split in the ground, running in a circle until Namach was left standing on a pillar of rock in the center of a dark abyss. Pieces of rubble and broken stones fell away into the darkness, and there was no sound of them hitting anything.

The vampire looked upwards, and the dark angels dove. It was then that what they carried in their claws, concealed against the black sky, became visible, Dementors. Or, rather, dead Dementors, hanging limply and dripping bits of rotting flesh.

The dark angels released the remains, flinging them into the chasm surrounding the ancient. Then they spread their wings until the fire from one wingtip touch the fire from the next, and followed the bodies into the darkness, briefly lighting the crumbling earth and rock walls on their way down, until they too vanished.

The vampires working their way through the inferi turned again, and performed a synchronized spell, banishing the bodies of the death eaters and burning remains of the inferi they had killed so far, a few hundred to the ground at Namach's feet. Where the bodies seemed to coalesce into one great mass of rotting dead flesh. Then they returned to the remaining inferi. Now instead of attacking they spread out in four lines. The lines split sending half of the vampires to the left and half to the right of the inferi army. More vampires raced around behind the inferi to block any retreat.

From deep within the gorge surrounding Namach a silvery glow began to form, wafting upwards like bits of mist. Souls and dementor magic. The magic used to keep the souls bound to the Dementors, dead magic. The inferi at the ancient's feet began to twitch as bits of the floating dead magic touched them.

Namach beckoned to the souls now drifting about and they came to him, at his direction losing all form and becoming clouds of soul magic, floating down to cover the inferi.

Now dark red magic began to rise from the ground, followed by gouts of flame signaling the returning dark angels. The red magic twisted itself into long whip like tendrils and wrapped around Namach and the silvery mass of souls and inferi. The ancient vampire raised his hands and pulled out a knife, with which he began to activate specific bloodmagics with careful cuts along his arms and palms. Finally he tossed the knife aside. The bloodmagic he had called glowed gold. A great wave of black magic billowed out around him, concealing him from sight, it spread outwards to mix with the red magic.

The pillar of earth the ancient was standing on began to glow, soon the glow turned to fire, flames eating their way out of the soil. The dark angels were _inside _the earth, Rahkesh could see their forms rippling about like shadows in water under the dirt.

Soon their flames exploded upwards, enveloping the ancient vampire, inferi, the souls pulled from the dead Dementors, the dementor magic and whatever magics he was working.

"Child," Namach spoke from within the fireball, not bothering to yell, his smooth dark voice carrying well enough to be heard perfectly above the sounds of battle, "I _invented_ the inferi."

A wave of black magic blasted out through the walls fire. The explosive force behind it sending flames flying in all directions, Rahkesh and his companions threw themselves to the ground as the waves of fire flew across the ground just above their heads. Looking up Rahkesh saw the black magic sweeping across the battlefield towards the inferi army.

It didn't strike them so much as go _through _them, and the inferi dropped like dead leaves in a storm as it passed, bits of magic leaving each of them, adding to the black wave. In seconds the entire inferi army, which would have taken months to build, thousands of animated corpses, had fallen.

Then the dark angels roared up out of the earth, following the wave of dead magic, the fire enveloping them burning away the remains of the inferi.

Namach pulled the earth back together, sending the remaining death eaters, some of the vampires and Rahkesh and the werewolves to the ground as the earth shook.

"Very clever vampire, very clever. But I'm not finished yet." Voldemort shouted. He didn't sound nearly so confident anymore, Rahkesh noticed. "Voldemort raised his wand and a wave of blue shot upwards. From back where the inferi had come from howls rose. Rahkesh knew these howls, werewolves. Perhaps a few hundred of them, their voices joining to become almost painfully loud.

The vampires had begun moving back up the slope towards the center of the rubble. At the sound of the howling some of them started laughing. The howls grew closer, and in seconds the werewolves appeared, charging up the hill. The vampires parted ranks and the ones controlling the fire tornados hurled them forward.

Following the fire came the Hellhounds. Only a few score strong, but fearsome nonetheless. The vampires gathered, some of them sitting down on the rubble, to watch. Apparently unconcerned by this latest threat.

Rahkesh had never seen Hellhounds, their thick guard hairs were glowing red hot and a metallic shine to them. They also looked very sharp, and they were big, much bigger than any werewolf. Not creatures he'd want to get into a fight with.

"Your mansion crushed, your minions dead, and my werewolves on the hunt. Your Hellhounds won't last long, why waste your lives? Surrender and we can come to an agreement." Voldemort called out.

The vampires started laughing. All of them. Finally Lord Hadrian stopped and stepped forward.

"Yes well, my Hellhounds know what they're doing. The guards you killed were not actual guards. And, since you mentioned it, about my manor, it is in fine condition." The master vampire flicked his fingers over his face, arms, palms and chest, activating bloodmagic runes. His fists then slowly began to close as they did a glow spread from his feet across the battlefield. Spider-silk thin lines wavering over and through and under the rubble of his once fine manor. Then he closed his eyes, drew a deep breath, let it out, and unclenched his fists.

The pieces of trash and debris across the ground, meters thick, began to right themselves, rebuilding the entire manor from the ground up in less than a minute, leaving it standing, perfect, clean, untouched. Even the grass was fine, not crushed or dirty.

Voldemort's shock showed clear on his face, then he collected himself and screamed order at his remaining death eaters.

"Relora, you realize the opportunity here?" Rahkesh asked cautiously, after moving to Moody's other side, away from her. For a moment the female alpha frowned at him, and then she nodded abruptly. Maxwell, his foot healed by Daniel, rejoined the group and they all pulled potions from inside their robes and drank them. Moody cast a silencing spell as the werewolves dropped to the ground and began to transform. Soon four large werewolves took off at a run for the packed vampires, slowing down as they approached and going to sit near Lord Hadrian, who looked at them in surprise. Relora gave the werewolf version of a laugh, then she and her three companions chased off after the Hellhounds.

"Werewolves and vampires working together, never thought I'd see it." Moody muttered,

"Well it only took the world's most powerful psycho to get them to do it." Rahkesh said.

With the werewolves out of the way Rahkesh began to search for Nagini. The snake had clearly freed herself from the metal spike she'd been impaled on upon landing long before Hadrian had fixed his manor. But the blood on the ground was very fresh, she'd only just gotten away.

Seeing his werewolves were not winning against the Hellhounds, despite their overwhelming numbers, and that any who got past the hounds were promptly hit with spells from the vampires, Voldemort called on his last back up plan.

Rahkesh heard the hissing, even across the distance separating them and the noise of the Hounds and Werewolves. He was summoning, in parseltongue.

"Oh crap, not good."

Basilisks, their portkeys activated by the parselmagic summoning, appeared beside and behind the Voldemort, four of them. African Basilisks, his Parselmagic informed him when he sought it out.

Abruptly his mind was filled with a rush of information, flinging itself past his memory in such a way that Rahkesh was sure he'd forget it at once, but it would be available in the archive contained within the Parselmagic. There were four varieties of African Basilisk; the pygmy Basilisk, the Desert Basilisk, the Black Rainforest Basilisk (not to be confused with the Green Rainforest Basilisk subspecies in South America), and the Grasslands Blue Basilisk (named for the color of its eyes and eggs). These were all Blues, the smallest of which was much larger than Rahkesh's snake form, despite his form being from the second largest of all the world's Basilisk varieties (Asian Reds). Well the Blues were third largest, at birth. And clearly all of these were a few hundred years old, but not too old. His magics suddenly informed him to check for the telltale flame-like markings around the eyes and nostrils and at the edges of the belly scales. The four Blues had the eyes, but not the other two. None of them was more than five hundred then. But almost there.

"Rahkesh?" Moody asked, "what are they?" Regulus, sitting on the post of a solid black iron gate in a black iron fence that ran around the orchard, looked up at him. Rahkesh snapped out of the haze the abrupt flood of information had caused.

"All Basilisks can kill with their eyes, and their venoms aren't that different, except for the pygmies and the largest of all the varieties. There are three known species of Basilisks, and then four subspecies within each. These are African Blues, all under five hundred years of age, but probably more than four hundred years old. Crest shape appears to be identical" he added, glancing at their heads "possibly siblings."

"Your Basilisk form?" Moody asked.

"No good, my subspecies is much larger than theirs is at birth, but I'm younger, you take human years, convert to snake years, and I'm still younger. I'm smaller than any of them, though not by a whole lot. On size and weight alone I could take one but only if I knew how to fight in my snake form, and I don't." And he wasn't going to dare to rely on his parselmagic to instruct him while he fought.

Voldemort obviously thought he'd pulled out the card that would win the battle. Even a Master Vampire would find a Basilisk to be a bit of a challenge. He drew back and levitated himself to watch, his remaining death eaters put up shields and began casting spells at the vampires, trying to force them to concentrate on them until the Basilisk got closer.

Where was Nagini? Surely a snake that big and injured couldn't hide so well, but the decorative bushes, now alive and fixed, were thick and deep. But she could not have moved very fast, and the bushes were very thick, they would have hurt against her wound. _Sygra?_

The vampires had plans of their own. A group of them broke off from the rest and moved, following one of the Basilisk that was racing around them trying to get behind the vampires. Moving quickly they intercepted it and attacked. A barrage of bright spells at its eyes, followed by spells to punch holes through its protective outer scales to the softer thin layer of skin below.

Voldemort had thought of that, and all the spells bounced off as wards flared up around the snake. It shook itself, hissed, and struck, the vampires scattered. One of them wasn't fast enough and was speared on a fang that went right through his chest.

"Must be a ward stone." Moody said.

"A what?"

"A stone, usually a gem, with wards on it that don't activate _on _the stone but instead on whatever surrounds it. The snakes must have swallowed ward stones. Clever of him." The old auror grunted. "And a problem for us."

"Oh I don't think so, not really." Rahkesh said, waiting while Sygra tried to pinpoint Nagini so he could use a directed summoning spell. If he didn't know exactly where she was when he cast it she'd probably be able to snap it. "Just watch."

The dozen dark angels were attacking now. Circling the Basilisk the vampires had attacked, raking it with their poisoned claws. Their claws slipped past the wards and one of them finally managed to rake its claws into an eye, causing the Basilisk to scream. Their flames couldn't hurt it directly, but the extreme heat had probably begun to cause blistering under the scales. Grasslands Blues could withstand fire, but only to a certain point, when it got too hot their thick scales couldn't block out all the heat.

Looking back to the other vampires Rahkesh saw that they were moving, spreading out, leave Namach in the center. The ancient had his knife again and with tiny flicks of it activated an extensive set of bloodmagic runes. A very extensive set, the glowing from them was painfully bright. The ancient dropped his walls and let his power free, the vampires moved farther away, those closest visibly stumbling. Regulus yelped in surprise as the ancient's magic swept over them, thick enough to choke on and raging like a stormy sea. The danger was almost enough to force the calmest to terror and panic. Yet at the same time the vampiric side sent out a dark seductive aura that was difficult to ignore. It was a heady combination, immense raging power and terror enough to send an untrained mind into shock mixed with a seductive pull that had the nearer vampires trembling. Rahkesh struggled frantically to block it out, beside him Moody was shaking his head like a wet dog. Finally the auror shuddered and growled, then straightened and blinked. Rahkesh gritted his teeth against the onslaught and wished he had a nice small discrete animagus – an animal wouldn't be quite so affected.

"I had rather hoped to see Namach's animagus form, I have a bet with a friend on what it is." Rahkesh said when he had his voice back under his conscious control. He could feel the power collecting in Namach, and the air was getting charged to the point he was surprised it wasn't physically harmful.

"Is that what he's doing?" Moody asked.

"Yes. Bloodmagic sorcerers of his capabilities usually find it necessary to contain their animagus with bloodmagic. Others do it because their forms are too powerful and too uncontrollable. Another year or two and I may have to do the same, because of how out of control mine are."

Daray was absolutely certain that the ancient was one of the death dragons, guardians of hell, the devils body guards. They had many names in many cultures and were very rare. If they existed at all. Legend said they had been there at the destruction of Atlantis, eating the survivors, and had, myth had it, created the Sahara desert by burning away the land. Supposedly. Rahkesh had checked up on them when Daray had made his claim, and had found that there had never been a reliable recorded sighting or fossil finding, ever. Of course, his own guess was almost as far-fetched as Daray's, but at least the creature he had guessed was known to have existed at all. Rahkesh was betting on an Ice Dragon, probably, but not certainly, extinct since the end of the last Ice Age.

Daray was quite sure his guess was right, though he hadn't explained how he knew. But Rahkesh knew for sure that he was right. He had known since the ancient had called upon his animagus to force Rahkesh's thunderbird to back down and stop taking over Rahkesh's mind. The ice and cold and fury and fire and reptilian scales and wings and immense power he had felt then could only belong to one known creature.

Nagini, he had to find Nagini. _Sygra, smell her._ Sygra uncoiled from his neck and shoulders and stretched out, forked tongue flickering.

_Ahead and to the right, about a dozen lengths._ Sygra hissed to him. Rahkesh translated snake distances – they measured by their own body length, into paces and moved forward to a position behind a rather large sweat smelling shrub. _I have her, behind the row of lilies…wait I've lost her again. _Sygra paused, smelling the air again. Rahkesh moved back and bent low, removing the trunk in his earring and got out a tiny phial with just a few phoenix tears in it. These were the tears of a phoenix living near Akren, cried when its chick had been killed by a griffin. Rahkesh had been following the griffin hoping to get a feather or two, and had summoned the tears. He'd also gotten the griffin feathers, a good day for him but not for the phoenix. He tucked the phial into a pocket after showing it to Moody, and put the trunk away. He might need it to deal with killing the horcrux.

Namach began to change. White light flared around him until it was too bright to see him. Waves of silver and gold magic sprung up and wrapped themselves around him, long tendrils curling like whips. From inside the magic a horrible roar blasted, making everyone flinch away. Then the air turned so cold Rahkesh could see his breath.

A massive dragon exploded out of the magic, rearing up above the battlefield. Rahkesh gasped in awe, and couldn't suppress a pleased grin, he'd been right. An Ice Dragon. A massive Ice Dragon with white, gold, and silver scales. Bigger than any dragon he'd ever seen, easily more than twice the size of his thunderbird, dwarfing the Basilisks. The massive white and gold head lifted higher than the mansion stood, high enough it would pass most buildings in London. The claws alone were easily the size of an elephant and when it spread its enormous wings the sky above the remains of the manor was completely covered from view. He'd never heard of any dragon ever getting that big. It shouldn't happen. But this dragon was as old as it vampiric form, and some dragon species did continue to grow throughout their lives. But still, the size alone was overwhelming, mind stopping.

The bright trails of magic dissipated, leaving on the dragon, so big it was hard to see all of it, in the dark it was shadowed, only its lower parts being illuminated by light from the firestorms and dark angels, casting flickering shadows of fire across its pearl white scales.

The air was icy cold and when the dragon's head lowered and snorts ice crystals and freezing air blasted out, visibly freezing the rubble beneath it.

"Don't see that every day." Moody said softly.

"Voldemort wasn't expecting that." Rahkesh chuckled, turning they both looked at the dark lord.

Voldemort stood still, head craning up to look and the monster standing in front of him, vampires scattered about its feet. He looked completely numb, in shock.

One of the Basilisks, suicidal or very brave, attacked. Shooting towards the dragon and striking at its leg, Namach roared, turned and caught the Basilisk by the back of its neck between his jaws. The Ice Dragon bit down hard and the snake screamed, bones snapped audibly and blood splashed across white scales. Lifting the thrashing snake nearly clear of the ground he breathed out a gale of freezing air through his nostrils, frosting its coils. He then snapped his head around and threw it at the other two, knocking them both flat. Though bigger than the one Rahkesh had fought in the Chamber of Secrets they were no match for the Ice Dragon. The dragon twisted, leaned down, and roared, and wave of white flame engulfing the nearest basilisk, freezing it solid. Whether it was dead or not Rahkehs couldn't tell, but like most living things Basilisks were mostly water, and surely it would have died from being frozen like that. Or maybe not, his parselmagic abruptly supplied the possibility that if it was only the scales that had frozen it might live.

The last of the werewolves turned and fled, the Hellhounds gave chase until a sharp whistle from Lord Hadrian called them back. The last Dementors and death eaters followed them, vanishing into the night and leaving the property as quickly as possible. The remaining two Basilisks turned and fled while the dark angels swarmed the injured one, ripping out its other eye and folding their flaming wings around it while raking their black claws through its scales.

Voldemort, mouth open and breathing shakily, stared at the dragon. It ignored him, lifting its head over him and sending out more white fire at the fleeing Basilisks, freezing another. A second wave of fire, this time black fire, turned the fourth one to ash. Two dead, two frozen and possibly dead.

_There. _Sygra spoke, _Behind that tree_

"Accio." Rahkesh murmured, keeping the spell as quiet as possible. He would have done it silently but Nagini had powers of her own. As it was he had to concentrate hard and put everything he had into the spell when he felt her try to fight it off. Finally the big snake came flying back across the ground to him. Rahkesh kept her low, out of sight.

Voldemort finally woke up, and vanished with a sharp snap, white flames hit the ground, Voldemort screamed as he apparated out, one arm frozen. The dragon, annoyed, lashed its tail, flattening the manor stables, and sending the vampire ducking as rubble flew through the air. Lord Hadrian rebuilt the stables at once, he probably wouldn't complain, Rahkesh decided. At least not until centuries had passed, too much chance of annoying Namach. Lord Hadrian might be a City Master, but the vampiric power structure didn't change much with age and he was under Namach complete control. Namach roared in fury at the wizard's escape, and everyone collapsed, hands over their ears. The sounds a dragon that large could produce were physically painful and Rahkesh felt tears spring to his eyes. The werewolves, with their hearing, must be in real pain and when he looked up half the Hellhounds appeared to have passed out. The others seemed to actually be crying and fleeing. Cyala waved her wings, and wave of fire swept across the Ice Dragon's face, making him blink and shake his head with a most undignified, and very pained, squawk. Namach looked around, suddenly appearing apologetic, remembering just how loud his roar was. The dragon shook its head and transformed. The ancient vampire suddenly standing before them again. He immediately called back the Hellhounds and began healing them.

"Bit disappointing." Namach muttered, over the absolute silence he was easy to hear. "I'd hoped for more of a fight, and some real Basilisks, not those little hatchlings."

Nagini arrived, knowing if he killed her here he'd attract too much attention Rahkesh grabbed her, and apparated to his cottage. Moody grabbed Regulus and followed.

Rahkesh hit the ground awkwardly, her righted his stumble and tossed Nagini down, hitting her with a stunner before she could attacked. Casting another stunner just to be sure he waited until the other two had appeared, and signaled them back. If Nagini dodged or threw it off he didn't want to hurt them accidentally. Sygra dropped off his neck and slithered back to Moody and Regulus, not wanting to get in the way.

"_Adssvadssrass Kedavssrass!_ Rahkesh shouted, as best as one could shout while hissing. The bright green spell leaped form his wand and Rahkesh poured everything he had into it. Every anger and hurt at Voldemort's hands, all the hate he could find.

Nagini went limp, dead, the horcrux exploded.

Inky black magic swallowed up the dead snake and exploded outwards, screaming. Human screaming without a throat. Rahkesh felt the air shiver and ducked as the dark grey swirl of soul blew about than spread away from its center, and burst into flame. Dark fire ate it away out of the air and with a sparkle of black magic the soul vanished and so did Nagini's remains. The screams lingered in the air and the earth shivered, then all went quiet.

The last quiver of the ground had knocked everyone off their feet. Rahkesh stood and sniffed the air which was at once chilly with a cold dead feel, and hot with the smell of death.

Then the pain hit.

Agony, agony everywhere, his entire world filled with pain. Magical pain, not physical, pain so deep that when he searched for the source it went beyond anything the cruciatus could inflict, to the center of his soul. Gasping Rahkesh jerked out of the magic that was dragged at his senses. Darkness rushed across his vision and Rahkesh choked, unable to breathe, feeling his lungs and heart spasm painfully. He collapsed to his knees and gritted his teeth against a scream, fighting away the pain. Magic, foreign magic, something that should not be there. His instincts screamed that something had to be done _NOW_. Rahkesh reached out for his occlumency and wrapped it around him, seeking out his memories to reaffirm who he was, calling on his own magic he pulled away from the unknown magics. A brief hiss of parseltongue, not his own, shot across his mind. Rahkesh released his magic, dropping it back to fill the void left when he'd drawn back from parts of his own mind, forming a solid wall and hurling the foreign magic out.

He was free. The pain was gone. Rahkesh uncorked the phial and drank a few drops of the phoenix tears, then put it away with shaking hands. He was gasping and shaking, distantly he could hear Moody calling his name and felt the magic of Regulus transforming. But he didn't answer, his mind was else where, realizing what he'd just learned.

Moody watched as Rahkesh steadied himself, the phoenix tears obviously helping against whatever had attacked him. Sygra shot forward and waited, looking up at Rahkesh and hissing, and getting no response. Regulus was back in human form and they both approached cautiously. Rahkesh looked okay, and Moody could sense no magical turmoil.

Then Rahkesh began to scream.

After a long life fighting the dark arts Moody had heard plenty of screaming, and he knew what he heard now was not pain, not physical pain. The magic, completely uncontrolled and frantic, sizzling in the air around them told him that this was a wrenching emotional pain. Regulus winced and covered his ears as Rahkesh's screams continued. Moody put up a silencing ward and waiting. Finally the screams turned to sobbing and the three, the snake and the two humans, could only watch in confusion Rahkesh broke down, sobbing and screaming in the grass.

"The horcrux?" Regulus asked softly.

"No, it's gone, completely." Moody replied.

Rahkesh was completely unaware of the two humans watching, with growing worry, or of Sygra beside him, hissing frantically. He was caught up in what had been revealed to him in the moments after the horcrux had been destroyed. He had found the last horcrux. There had been the cup, the ring, the book, Nagini, the locket, Voldemort, and one other.

He, Rahkesh, Harry Potter, was the last horcrux.

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The End

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Now before everyone gets all upset about how cliché that is, Rahkesh being the last horcrux – I wrote that ending nearly a year ago, before I wrote the first chapter, so there. Let me remind you that this fic will be continuing beyond Voldemort, he isn't all that important, and because of that I try to make as much stuff completely original as possible. I think you'll like my ideas for the horcrux removal. (Actually I know you will).

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The sequel will be coming very soon, no exact date but probably a week or less. No idea of a title…I'm thinking about holding a title contest after I post the second or third chapter, I'm drawing a complete blank.

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Preview of next fic:

Professor Xanthius gets troublesome, Daray gets his demon issue taken care of, the elves finally make an appearance (we'll learn a bit about them, maybe more than a bit), horcrux destruction, Voldemort's removal, more training at Akren, a deeper look at a few of the fae species, Europe gets trashed and burned to the ground (not literally…maybe), Ally gets a boyfriend, Daray tortures Draco (possible rape), a few Akren students die, Veela hold an uprising, ending (probably) with…wait I can't tell you that. No promises, plans are subject to change without warning, no refunds.

A warning beforehand, we'll be taking a look at the vampires' darker side, probable mentions of coerced sex and gratuitous bloodletting and a look at what happens to some of those who make it into Akren, then can't handle it. Might make you wince, of course if you've read this far I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Depending on how far I get there might be some mentions of bestiality – demons and their prisoners. Nothing graphic but decidedly unpleasant. Hopefully the next fic will earn its rating (this one didn't), please let me know if I'm falling short of that goal.

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